Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by the Total Book Geek. The purpose of this bookish variant is to match a book with a particular song; whether it is character defining, a narrative element, or just an overall book defining track.

So why am I doing this? Well if I had to choose to only have one of the five traditional senses, it would be sound perception above all else. And hey I think it’d be neat to share music I listen to on a daily basis!

This Week’s Song:
Quiet Little Voices – 
We Were Promised Jetpacks

Book Selected:
The Knife of Never Letting Go –
Patrick Ness

Initial Thoughts:

This is a companion post to my review of The Knife of Never Letting Go found here. Noise noise noise noise noise noise.

This whole song doubles as a reflection of what Noise metaphorically emanates throughout the novel. Although the intent behind you is pretty open-ended, with the common interpretation being that this lead would do anything for a person, it’s still a worthy interpretation that does make sense in the context of lyrics. But let me stretch the possibility of meaning to work with Ness’ novel.

Throughout The Knife of Never Letting Go, Noise fills the pages acting on the three key precursors to what you (or any character therein) could end up feeling: it’s an uncontrollable and constant voice in your head that can be menacingly ominous but also rich and meaningful by the same capacity. Check, check, and check, per the lyrics.

For the sake of specificity, Noise is just noise to Todd Hewitt, a boy who can’t seem to fit in and is seemingly pushed back down by his community because he doesn’t identify with the men of his town. He is continually reminded of and reminds himself of his age that he will soon enter manhood…but is still undeniably a child. (see: I’m young again)

This message repeats itself throughout the novel: “If one of us falls, we all fall.”
We can first agree that falling for you can be falling for a person or for a cause. In the context of the book, falling indicates the loss of innocence and what it means to be a child prior to entering adulthood. The little monsters in the noise are an uncanny representation of everything from a communities culture, social media, or simply general conformity, such that if young adults allow these monsters to take hold of them and they are changed not on their own will, then the cliché that one bad apple spoils the barrel rings true.

Both the last portion of the verse (re: “quiet words of wisdom”) and the hook (is it a hook?) regarding “in any which direction” is a doozy to explain as it works in many perspectives. While I do have plausible explanations, it’s basically a potential spoiler. So I won’t burden you with explanation but if you want to have a better understanding, you can read this The Knife of Never Letting Go, the first instalment to the Chaos Walking

Excerpt from Quiet Little Voices

Quiet little voice creep into my head.
I’m young again.

Quiet little monsters creep creeping down my bedroom wall.
I’ll fall for you.

Quiet words of wisdom creep into your victims ears,
I’ll die for you.

In any which direction, call me
I will run for you.
I’ll come for you.
I’ll die for you.
I’ll come for you.

I’d better stop now.

Afterthoughts:

Now I am in some withdrawal because I do not have the second book yet. Le sigh. Let me just put this song on repeat now to fill the void….

Cheers,
Joey