Chaos Walking

I've discovered a new dystopian trilogy called Chaos Walking, by Patrick Ness.  It's about a boy named Todd Hewitt, and he lives in New World, Prentisstown to be specific, which is a planet that people are immigrating to because Old World (Earth) is a wreck.
The only problem is . . . New World is a wreck too.  Because of something called the Noise, which allows men to hear each other's thoughts.  Women don't have Noise, but they can still read men's thoughts.  Animals can talk, too.  And people are evil and everything.  *sigh*  (I'm terrible at writing summaries.)
Todd is fourteen in Earth years and thirteen in New World years, which means he's almost a man.  But there are certain things he has to do to become a man, according to Prentisstown law.

But, uh, the 'Ages 14 and up' warnings on the back of the books are definitely not an understatement.  Lots of violence and cussing and once in a while some inappropiate content.  If you like The Hunger Games, though, there isn't anything in these books that's not in those.
And don't use these books as a spelling guide.  Todd's illiterate, and since the books are told from his perspective, the spelling isn't great.  At least it's consistent. 

That said, the books are really good.  They've gotten tons of awards.  The plot is great, which I like.  And the writing is really descriptive.

But what I found odd is that several characters remind of characters from other books.  Here are some:

Manchee [Todd's dog] = Total (Maximum Ride)
David Prentiss, Jr. = Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter)
David Prentiss, Sr. = Voldemort (Harry Potter)
Todd = Gale (Hunger Games)
Lee = Peeta (Hunger Games)
Viola = Katniss (Hunger Games)
Mistress Coyle = Haymitch (Hunger Games)
Todd's mother = Lily Potter [Harry's mom, not daughter] (Harry Potter)
Ben = James Potter [Harry's dad]

I highly recommend these books to anyone who can stomach cold-blooded murder.  The titles are The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men.  I've only read the first two, but I plan to get my hands on a copy of the conclusion ASAP.

Oh, eheh, apparently these books are really famous (I'd never heard of them until I saw them at the bookstore, but . . .) and there's going to be a movie made out of them.  (I went Googling the book cover images for fun and found this little article.)

~Billybobjean
P.S.  This is a scheduled post . . . I randomly picked a time.  I have no idea why.