A Monster Calls

★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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I hadn't even heard of this book until a couple of weeks ago, when it was recommended to me by a loyal reader. And I wasn't given a lot of details, just a strong recommendation and something about it being “about grief.” I could've used the warning that it was a YA book, but otherwise, that's all I needed to know (and the YA wouldn't have been a deal breaker or maker – I just would've liked to know what I was grabbing). I'm not going to say much more than that, really. It's about grief, there's some magic, and it's one of the most effective novels I've read this year.

There's been so much said about this book by others – I'm almost afraid to say much, I don't want to ruin anyone's discovery.

You've got a 13 year-old boy, Conor, whose mother is undergoing cancer treatment – and it's not going well. His grandmother (not at all the stereotypical grandmother-type, as Conor is very well aware), comes to stay with them with every new round of treatment, and Conor hates it. His father and his new wife have started a new life in the US. All of this has left Conor isolated, emotionally all alone – except at school, where he's bullied (when not alone). Somehow in his despair, Conor summons a monster, a monster older than Western Civilization, who visits the boy to help him.

He helps him via stories – I love this – not escapism, but through the lessons from stories – and not in a “You see, Timmy . . . “ kind of moralizing – just from understanding how people work through the stories.

After reading page 15, I jotted down in my notes, “Aw, man! This is going to make me cry by the end, isn't it?” I didn't, for the record, but I came close (and possibly, if I hadn't been sitting in a room with my daughter and her guitar teacher working on something, I might have.

The prose is easy and engaging – there's a strong sense of play to the language. There's some wonderfully subtle humor throughout, keeping this from being hopelessly depressing. The prose is deceptively breezy, it'd be very easy to read this without catching everything that Ness is doing. But mostly, what the book gives is emotion – there's a raw emotion on display here – and if it doesn't get to you, well, I just don't know what's wrong with you.

The magic, the monster and the protagonist remind me so much of Paul Cornell's Chalk (which is probably backwards, Chalk should be informed by this – oops). Eh, either way – this is cut from the same cloth.

That's a bit more than I intended to say, but I'm okay with that. I'm not convinced that this is really all that well-written, technically speaking. But it packs such an emotional wallop, it grabs you, reaches down your throat and seizes your heart and does whatever it wants to with it – so who cares how technically well it's written? (and, yeah, I do think the two don't necessarily go together). A couple of weeks from now, I may not look back on this as fondly – but tonight, in the afterglow? Loved this.

Love, grief, hope, loss, anger, fear, monsters and the power of stories. Give this one a shot. Maybe bring a Kleenex, you never know . . .

Sometimes you find a book. Other times, the book finds you. I picked A Monster Calls because I'd seen such great reviews for it. I wasn't prepared for what lay ahead.

Based on the summary, it sounded like a cross between Pan's Labyrinth and The Book of Lost Things. Was the monster real, or was he a coping mechanism for his mother's illness? Reading this book ripped apart my soul. Connor is reluctant to acknowledge his mother's illness. “She's getting better.” That's at least what Connor believes. Reading through the lines, it's clear she's not.

Having recently lost my best friend of 14 years (my dog Casey) I was unprepared for this book. She was sick for a long time before she passed. It was just like Connor's mom. I could see the decline, but I didn't want to admit it to myself. How can you? There is nothing worse than watching the decline of someone you love, knowing there is nothing you can do about it.

She passed away 3 weeks ago. I cried my tears, but I was oddly at peace with her passing. I had been prepared for over a year. Every extra day was a blessing. Reading this book brought all the pain out. Everything I had hid. Everything I had denied. It all came out. I was Connor. My dog was his mom.

I flew through the book with tears in my eyes. After finishing it, I buried it in my pile of books to return. I didn't want to look at it again. I loved the drawings, but the story touched a piece of me I didn't want to revisit. Correction, don't want to revisit. Perhaps that makes it a great book. Perhaps my judgement is clouded. This book found me at the best and worst of times. It's amazing how life works.

A Monster Calls is a short book filled with clever elements that will make you turn page after page in no time. I really enjoyed the pacing of the story, with its short chapters and beautifully subtle chapter names.

The whole book feels kind of subtle, because no one ever speaks openly about what is happening until the very end. And that ending comes so abruptly and with full force, that I needed a few minutes to comprehend it all. Of course I, and everybody in the book knew what was going to happen, but I felt just like Conor, still hoping and not accepting till the end.

Although the story is centered around a young boy, there is still enough to take away at an older age.

“Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.”

Thankfully I never had to go through something like this in my life, but everything still felt eerily real. The clinging on ones childish naivety, the fear and hate of getting ignored for something you have no control over and the sheer heaviness of it all at such a young age.

All of this combined helped A Monster Calls to be remembered.

Full review at SFF Book Review

Who would have thought this book would break my heart?
Not expecting very much, mostly looking forward to the illustrations, I started reading what seemed to be a predictable tale of a young boy and his cancer-stricken mother. Who gets visits by a monster. While this is how it starts out, the story grew - and on very few pages - to something much bigger and more touching. I found myself caring about Conor and wanting his mother to get better.
I found I liked the monster and Conor's no-longer-friend Lily. I even managed to care about the grandmother and the absentee father. A book, small as it may be, peopled with so many great characters already is an easy win for me.

But there is also a story to be discovered. I will keep this rather vague because discovering the truth - and throwing away all your wrong guesses in between - is a large part of the fun of this book. If you can call it fun. I read this calmly for the most part, only to become fully and shockingly emotional towards the end. I am a book cryer but usually I see these moments coming. Not here. I didn't know I was suddenly going to care so much. And while I predicted part of the ending, it was the details that made it perfect.

Highly recommended. All young adult books should be written this well and have a message this hopeful.

If I had known this book would be so pricking for the place my head and heart are currently confined, I probably wouldn't have picked it up.

But I'm glad I did.

Patrick Ness resurrects the art of Story. Connor's narrative is written simply, not overdone nor excessively ornate. Ness' talent + confidence is evident by the ease + accessibility of his writing. Yet, the essence of this story will leave readers with a tongue-biting, tears-welling aftertaste.

I had heard wonderful things about Patrick Ness' novel A Monster Calls and in the past had opened it and flicked through the first few pages but, for some reason, I put it down and hadn't picked it back up again. However, this is one of those books that refuses to go away, no matter where you turn people cannot wait to tell you how incredible this story is and how much it moved them emotionally and so I went back and gave it another try and I am absolutely not disappointed that I did. In fact, from this point on I think I'm going to join those legions of people shouting about just how wonderful this beautiful book was.

It's an unusual story, full of imagery and subtle themes that link it all together. It is the story of Connor, a young boy who is struggling to help his mother cope with her cancer and the debilitating effect the treatment of her disease has upon their lives. Living alone together he is her carer and from the outset of this book he talks about the nightmares that haunt him as he tries to manage to care for his mum, school and his feelings that nobody treats him normally anymore.

One night a monster, in the form of a tree, from the graveyard across from his back garden comes calling and tells Connor it is there because Connor called him. An ancient soul this monster says it will tell Connor three stories but in return, he must share the content of his nightmare which haunts him.

Dealing with difficult themes this book is not for younger readers but it is wonderful for young adults looking to explore a book rich with beautiful imagery and there is a gorgeous illustrated edition of this novel available which helps to bring the story to life. Also adapted into a movie starring Felicity Jones and with the voice of Liam Neeson, it also makes the story accessible to those who aren't lovers of books. It is absolutely going on my to watch list within the next few weeks. It isn't overly long, weighing in at just over 200 pages. I read this so quickly picking it up and finishing it in one afternoon because once I had picked it up I really really did not want to put it down.

The core theme of the novel is one of coping with those things that are outwith our control and the fear of having to let go of someone you love. It addresses all of the emotions that accompany that from helplessness to anger to fear and grief. The way in which the monster and the stories it tells reflect the feelings Connor is experiencing in his own life make it very powerful to read and mean that you really lose yourself in the emotion of this story.

This is easily the easiest 5-star rating I've given in a while, it was a beautiful book very powerfully written and with a story that is timeless and will span generations because of its core story of family and love.

Gosh this one ripped my heart out... I don't even know if I'm able to say anything right to express how much this book made me feel. For everyone going or who went through a loved one's sickness, this is a book that might held a lot of answers. And for everyone else it is a great story. A wild one, a hard one, but a great story.

Finished in one short sitting and sobbing my eyes out. Clever, heartfelt, poignant. Patrick Ness perfectly expresses the voices of young adults and their struggles with the “big questions” of life without being too simplistic or cliche or patronising. The characters are always slightly flawed and don't always do the right thing, which is what makes them so heart-wrenchingly real. These observations also allude to the Chaos Walking trilogy, which I loved, and which made me pick this up as I know there's a movie in the works. I can understand why: big themes, powerful scenes, allegorical fairy tales, magic and monsters all in perfect balance. Brilliant.

“And if one day,' she said, really crying now, ‘you look back and you feel bad for being so angry, if you feel bad for being so angry at me that you couldn't even speak to me, then you have to know, Conor, you have to that is was okay. It was okay. That I knew. I know, okay? I know everything you need to tell me without you having to say it out loud.”

4.8

DEAR MOTHER OF GOD PLEASE SPARE THE CHILDREN!!! T_T

I just don't understand why this is a children's book when it's clearly meant for adults??? Nevertheless, here's what I thought of this book.

Like the Chaos Walking trilogy (I've only read ‘The Knife of Never Letting Go', by the way), this novel is filled with gut-wrenching emotional intensity, though it's a very different type of story. The writing is aimed at a younger audience, but Ness doesn't shy away from the complexity that his subject demands.

It's just so powerful to read about young Conor O'Malley's life through his innocent narration, and how the monster reveals all the truths about his life and the end–HOOMAAAYYYGAAHHHDD. I was just sobbing I could barely finish it, and books rarely move me to tears. What the monster shows Conor triggers many emotions at once, I would be greatly surprised if you walked away from this book feeling like you didn't love Conor, or his mother, or his grandmother for the matter. I even loved the monster.

I picked up this book thinking (based mostly on the title and cover) that it would be a standard YA horror. No, it isn't - not AT ALL. It isn't even horror. I was completely blown away by this book, by its heart, its truth, and its story. This book touched me in a personal way. I lost my beloved grandfather to an illness in October 2015. I have been conflicted with many thoughts, emotions - ranging from anger to sadness, to affection that may or may not have been fully expressed, to guilt - for maybe not fully understanding what was happening, maybe not asking enough questions, sometimes feeling like there should have been more that I could have done for him, but somehow knowing there was nothing at all I could do to change their path. Through all of this, I have learned that acceptance is a long and narrow road if you are not willing to let go. Conor's story gave me hope that, god forbid I am ever faced with a struggle like this again, I will have the courage and strength to speak my truth before it is too late.

I'm glad this book exists. Patrick Ness nailed it, even if I'd probably be tempted to slap him if I saw him right now (lol just kidding). I just heard that it's going to be a motion picture soon and I hope they can do it justice. I don't know if the big screen can capture the insane beauty of this book, but I hope it can, so that the message of it can reach more people. This book should be required reading. It should also be sold with tissues T___T

I finished reading this today and it made me immediately think of my family, myself being physically a long way from them. It's also made me think about how I myself have dealt with the loss of relatives over the years - my grandparents in my teenage years, and more recently my aunts and uncles.

“A Monster Calls” is written in such a way that people of all ages can ‘enjoy' it... and that is a word I use loosely here.

It's certainly not a cheerful book, but indeed one that makes us think about how we deal with some of the monsters that cross our paths in life.

“The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do.

Conor was awake when it came.

He'd had a nightmare. Well, not a nightmare. The nightmare. The one he'd been having a lot lately. The one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming. The one with the hands slipping from his grasp, no matter how hard he tried to hold on....”

Ness brings us deep into the life of a thirteen-year-old boy, Conor, who has been facing monsters everywhere he looks. His mother is very sick with cancer. His father left the family to start a new family in America. His grandmother and he don't get along. His friends and he have had a falling out. He's being tormented by a bully at school.

Then, at midnight, a monster appears to Conor. An enormous yew tree with “a great and terrible face” that groans “like the hungry stomach of the world growling for a meal.” The yew tree is “the tears that the rivers cry,” and both “the wolf that kills the stag, the hawk that kills the mouse, the spider that kills the fly” as well as “the stag, the mouse, and the fly that are eaten.” The tree is terrifying and beautiful, and he has appeared to tell the boy three stories and to then listen to the story the boy must tell.

‘”Stories are the wildest things of all,” the monster mumbled. “Stories chase and bite and hunt.”'

A Monster Calls is brilliant. Ness tells a tale that is fantastic and real, with characters that are ordinary and extraordinary, in a way that is horrifying and calming.

‘”Stories are important,” the monster said. “They can be more important than anything. If they carry the truth.”'

Oh, dear... I was bawling my eyes out, and my sweet husband said “I don't think I want you to read that book...” Oh, yes, I might have not wanted to read it had I known what it was, but all I knew about it was the movie trailer, and that looked really interesting. This story was interesting, but it wasn't what the movie trailer made me think it was.

Trigger warning for bullying.

Anyway... my father died of cancer. It was the most painful, humiliating, debilitating, torturing death I can think of, and my father, my dearest, wonderful, amazing father didn't do anything to deserve that. Now, I can't think of anyone who deserves a death like that, but... my father wanted to live so badly. There were still so many things he wanted to do and experience and learn, still so many years he should have lived. And I wanted him in my life very badly, too. And my mother, my siblings, even my inlaws, everyone who knew him wanted him in their lives very badly. Nevertheless, I was praying for him to let go of life and die, in the last hours of his life. Death is not the worst thing that can happen to a person.

I love you, dad.

Fuck cancer.

I'm not surprised to see that this book has stellar reviews and that it has won multiple awards. This kind of story seems to be wildly popular and to get great acclaim.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the story at all. It was relentlessly dark and depressing (to the point that it sometimes felt contrived), with a side order of confusing. It didn't help that I strongly disagreed with some of the moral and philosophical opinions expressed (especially in the monster's stories). This is one of those unfortunate cases where a book is relatively well-written, but just did not work for me as an individual reader.