A MONSTER CALLS

SUMMARY

At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting-- he’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It’s ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd-- whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself-- Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.

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OPINION

I admit, I hadn't heard about this book until I saw the trailer for the adaptation. It really intrigued me, especially seeing that Liam Neeson was playing the monster – I mean the guy was Aslan’s voice. What’s not to love? So, of course, I had to get my hands on the book and read it before the movie came out, so that when I sit in the theater watching the movie, I’ll be constantly comparing it to the book and seeing if it did a good job representing it well because I am that type of person...I know. You don’t ever want to sit next to me in the theater.

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But this review isn’t about the movie, this is about the book.

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I couldn’t relate to this book or to Conor for that matter. I have never lost anyone really close to me to cancer or a disease - aside from my grandpa, but I was really little when he passed away and didn't know him that well. But I could still feel Conor's pain, his anger, and his sadness. This poor boy is dealing with something so horrible and I just wanted to reach into the pages and give him a hug and tell him everything is going to be all right, you’ll get through this, hang in there.

 

The illustrations in the book were very beautiful and also very dark, which fit perfect with the mood of this story. They were done by Jim Kay, who, if you are a fan of Harry Potter, did some concept work for the series. I highly recommend checking out his website. His work is absolutely stunning.

 

Aside from the amount of tissue boxes I had to go through, I really enjoyed this story and the illustrations helped to bring this story to life. I’ll definitely be rereading it again in the future, after I go through the other piles of books I have stacked up to read.