I finished reading The Ask And The Answer by Patrick Ness, the sequel to The Knife Of Never Letting Go and it was simply amazing. It seems that I continue to eat my words this year of sequels never being as good as the first.

Anyway, so The Ask And The Answer was simply brilliant. Once again I won't go into too much as I don't want to spoil things for people who haven't read the first one (you must, you must!), but what I can say is that it's not only capivating, clever and well written, it's sad, at times makes you want to turn away from the terrible acts you're reading and above all makes you think. The Ask And The Answer is about war crimes, manipulation, terrorism, love and the need to believe. It's also about two amazingly strong young adults who will do anything to save each other.

For a big book, it took me no time at all as I couldn't put it down. Patrick Ness is a clever writer and the one thing I love about him is that anything goes and things are not dumbed down or softened for the young adult audience. He treats them with respect and believes in their ability to understand situations of war, hardship and violence.