A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Hey everyone! I'm not going to be doing my regular post today because I'm going book shopping. So instead, here's a review for an exceptional book that I think you'll enjoy -- A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.

A Monster Calls
by Patrick Ness

Genre: YA contemporary/magical realism

My Rating: ★★★★★

Description: 

Ever since his mother became ill, Conor has had the same nightmare. But tonight, it's different. Tonight, a monster appears outside Conor's window.
It wants to tell him three stories... and after the stories are over, it wants to hear the most terrible thing of all -- the truth.

A Monster Calls is a Carnegie-winning story of love, loss, and hope.

Overall Thoughts

If you want a book to make you cry, look no further than A Monster Calls. This book is devastatingly sad and hopeful and beautiful all at the same time. I'm finding it incredibly hard to look at each piece of the story as a piece of the story, because everything was so beautifully interwoven. But I'm going to try anyway. Because I'm stubborn.

The Characters

The characters felt real. Looking back, I realize I don't know a lot about most of them, but Ness chose the details he shared perfectly to let us get to know them. They felt like people, and I think that this is the crowning achievement every author should be striving for. Conor, the main character, was sympathetic, and his point of view was interesting and complex. We know, almost from the first page, that Conor is hiding something from us... but we don't know what that is until much later. I enjoyed how complex his inner struggles were, and his grief and anger and guilt felt so realistic. 

Plot/Pacing

The plot itself is simplistic, I suppose: Conor is visited by a monster who promises to tell him three stories, and then asks him to share his own -- Conor's story. Between the monster's visits are scenes of Conor's day to day life, at school and at home, as he deals with his mother's illness. It's a very quiet story, when I think about it -- quiet, but at the same time hard to put down. It was as though the plot conveyed the normalcy of the rest of the world, while Conor's world is slowly falling apart, and it was breathtaking.

Writing

The setting was not a huge piece of the book -- only a few details about each new place were given, but it really fit the simple, spare writing style Ness used in the novel. The writing was haunting: it's simple, but it says so much. No sentence goes to waste.

In terms of theme, well -- it's what made the book for me. It was beautifully handled, explored in complex ways, and I appreciated that.

In short, I understand why this book has twice won the Carnegie Medal -- it deserves it.

Content

Recommended for ages 12 and up.

I don't recall any swearing, but there may have been one or two minor swear words. 

Conor's parents are divorced, and Conor's father is remarried to another woman. 

There are a few violent scenes, but none are graphically described, sparing many details that would be disturbing to some readers. 

Death is a major theme in this book, so be aware going in that this book deals with a terminal illness (cancer, presumably) and does not gloss over the emotions felt by the characters affected by it. These themes are what would make me hesitant to recommend this book to younger or less mature readers.