Juvenile Fiction
Candlewick Press (MA)
2013
Hardcover
224
Thirteen-year-old Conor awakens one night to find a monster outside his bedroom window, but not the one from the recurring nightmare that began when his mother became ill, but an ancient, wild creature that wants him to face truth and loss.
WrensReads Review:
I am so nervous about the movie! They have to have made this the most beautiful thing or else I quit books. Okay maybe not that extreme, but you understand my passion here.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
“Because humans are complicated beast,” the monster said. “How can a queen be both a good witch and a bad witch? How can a prince be a murderer and a saviour? How can an apothecary be evil-tempered but right-thinking? How can a parson be wrong-thinking but good-hearted? How can invisible men make themselves more lonely by being seen?”
If I had tears left to cry this morning, I would be crying due to the masterpiece that is Patrick Ness.
This book has a hero named Conor, a thirteen year old boy whose mom is fighting cancer, whose father moved to America to start a new family [this story is based in England], whose grandma is more like a business woman than an actual grandmother and whose typical school-bully targets the boy unseen.
Conor has a nightmare.
Well, he has two nightmares. One involves the yew tree outside his house becoming an unbelievable tall monster and the other… well, he won’t tell us. It’s too horrible and too terrifying.
He knows his mother is getting better. She believes it, so he believes it… while no one else really believes it themselves.
Lily, his once-good-friend at school betrayed him in the worst way and he will never forgive her.
About that first nightmare…
This yew tree claims to be thousands of years old and wise. He tells Conor he should be scared of him. He tells Conor that Conor called him to walk.
He tells Conor three tales in return for the one truth Conor will not tell a single soul about.
That second nightmare.
Is the first nightmare not a nightmare at all and actually a real thing? 12:07
The illustrations in this book are glorious and bring to life the horror of the book along with the haunted beauty in it. [Jim Kay] A Monster Calls was born from the idea of Siobhan Dowd and brought to life by Patrick Ness.
This novel is something I feel everyone should read, if not just to get a different perspective on things. It is a raw beauty and I am changed just by reading it.
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