A Monster Calls: Patrick Ness

Product Information

I've never read anything nearly as awfully beautiful as this story is. The way it's written, the timing, the darkness behind the words. I’m sorry, son,” his mum said, tears sneaking out of her eyes now, even though she kept up her smile. “I’ve never been more sorry about anything in my life.” Conor stays with his grandmother when his mother has to go into hospital and the monster helps him to understand that she isn't a bad person. After winning the Carnegie, Ness discussed the writing with The Guardian newspaper: [3] I wouldn't have taken it on if I didn't have complete freedom to go wherever I needed to go with it. If I'd felt hampered at all – again, even for very good reasons – then that harms the story, I think. And I did this not for egomaniacal reasons, that my decisions were somehow automatically right or some such nonsense, but because I know that this is what Siobhan would have done. She would have set it free, let it grow and change, and so I wasn't trying to guess what she might have written, I was merely following the same process she would have followed, which is a different thing. ... I always say it felt like a really private conversation between me and her, and that mostly it was me saying, "Just look what we're getting away with."

I really liked the graphics in this book, they are not not oh and ah, they are just graphics that tell a tale! Conor is the novel's protagonist and point-of-view character. At thirteen, Conor is haunted by a dream in which his terminally ill mother's hands slip from his grasp. He is also the victim of bullying at school. Prone to anger and isolation, Conor learns with the monster's help to accept the unfair reality of his mother's impending death. Conor’s grandmotherAll I know is that this story moved me. It moved me on a level books rarely do and it’s one of those books you wish you never read, but at the same time you’re so glad that you actually did. First things first: This almost never happens, but I have to admit that I cried at the end of this book; I clutched my cute little kitty-kat and bawled. You be as angry as you need to be,” she said. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Not your grandma, not your dad, no one. And if you need to break things, then by God, you break them good and hard.” The line between fiction and reality is blurred in this book. Sometimes it's not clear what's real and what is imagined. Accepting what we can't change is not easy, but over time the monster teaches Conor how to let go. The monster's magical tales reveal truths to Conor and show the power of facing our fears.

A couple of months before I turned fifteen, my father died. It was sudden, an accident. We’d had dinner as usual. He was working nights and left soon after. I hadn’t said goodbye to him because I was annoyed about something. Less than two hours later, he was dead. I could tell you exactly what clothes I put on after my brother told me I had to get out of the shower and get in the car. I could tell you exactly which Renoir print hung in the white, soulless room we were herded into at the hospital. I could tell you, word for word, the first thing my Mother said after we were given the news. This book just didn’t connect with me. I didn’t feel spoken to or really much of any emotional reaction, because I didn’t feel the reality of any of the characters or the situations they were in.

Keep in touch

My favorite part of this book was the author’s note. The author’s note is beautiful, and you should read it and then put the book down because you’ve just read the best part and it will not get better. Conor's nightmares begin shortly after his mother starts her treatments for cancer. He's also dealing with a father who lives far away and is engrossed with his new family, a brisk and determined grandma who doesn't understand him, and schoolmates who don't seem to see him anymore. As readers learn more and more about Conor's story and the terrible monster who comes to visit, it is impossible not to feel worry and fear and sadness for this boy, whose must shoulder problems that have toppled many adults before him. But even in his anger and pain, Conor's defiant spirit shows flashes of dry humor and painful hopefulness that are difficult to witness, but make him impossibly endearing. I don’t wanna say I went into this with high expectations, but like...okay yes I went into this with high expectations.