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All I can say is...emotional meltdown here I come! I have read some of the other reviews for this book and I agree with almost all of them. It looks like nearly everybody who reads this series and this book in particular are having a very similar experience and reaction.

I cannot review this book without spoilers (although I will try to limit them) so before I do I would urge those of you who have not read this series, please do not read reviews with spoilers as they will truly ruin the visceral emotional experience that this series gives you. I listened to the first two books as audio books but I am glad that I read this last one as I think I would have crashed the car during the final showdown it was so intense.

So..(takes a deep breath).. on to the story of Monsters of Men. If you have read the first two books in the series (and if you haven't why on earth are you reading this review? Go, go and read the first two now, now, now!) then you know that after escaping Prentisstown and travelling to Haven, Todd and Viola are caught up in the battle between Mayor Prentiss and Mistress Coyle. They are forced to take sides and at the climactic end Todd subdues the Mayor and sends Viola to contact the Scout ship that has landed. Things might be looking up but we know better and of course, then the army of Spackle appear. That's where The Ask and the Answer finishes.

Actually, I think I can do the review without spoilers as it is going to be too traumatic to write about what happens to Todd and Viola in this book. All I am going to say about it is that I cried my eyes out at the end. I am talking about heaving sobs, tears that made my eyes blur so much that I couldn't read the book and had to take a rest. I was so emotionally invested in this book that even though I knew from experience with the last two that there may not necessarily be a happy ending, I was living in hope.

I usually do get emotionally invested in character's lives, I love to read about their adventures, in fact I love them. That is why the complete adventures of Todd and Viola left me feeling like a wrung out dishrag. Everytime I thought they were safe, everytime I thought no nothing can get worse, it did.

In the first book, you only get to hear Todd's point of view. Then Viola's is added in the second. Now we hear from 1017 and how the Spackle (or The Land as they call themselves) understand things and it adds a whole new dimension to it all. I quite liked that approach, although I think I would have liked to hear it from Mayor Prentiss's point of view as well, just to understand exactly what he was thinking. What a great villain! His motives were unclear until the very end. And really, Todd didn't even get to defeat him properly so that was another thing that wasn't typical about this book.

I think I could rave on about this for days so I will stop there and just say that I heartily recommend this book, but I thought it was pretty full on for a YA novel so I wouldn't recommend it to sensitive souls.

I can't say have fun reading this but I will say enjoy. And don't forget to have some tissues with you while you read.