“People are seduced by signals from the world, but that is manipulation, not reality.” Douglas Rushkoff. Manipulation is one way the world works, and probably will never change. We are constantly seduced by what others say, and believe what they do. Well, this situation also applies to the book I read, The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. This story is set in Prentisstown, a small section of the New World. The Old World has become difficult to live in, and people started moving to a New World. Sounds weird and unusual, but it’s okay for now. Right? Well, things start getting weirder, when we find out that all women were killed by disease, and only men live in Prentisstown. What gets more unusual, is that men can hear each other’s thoughts! However, things start changing when we find out that women were not killed by the spackles, and the men and boys were manipulated to follow what their leader says or do. In my opinion, I think that the theme of this story is that the world is full of manipulation, and to not let others manipulate you. Firstly, we can tell that the citizens of Prentisstown were already manipulated when Todd, the main character of the book believed in what others said, which were women being killed by spackle, then finding out that it was not true(Pg 13, 276, 392, 393). On page 392 and 393, it is revealed by Ben, a parental figure of Todd reveals to Todd and Viola, that spackles were killed by a major population of the men in Prentisstown. It