A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

Publisher: Walker Books

Publication Date: September 27, 2011

Format: Paperback

Pages: 216

 

 

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“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.”

 

SYNOPSIS:

The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.

But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming…

This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth.

 

REVIEW:

This book made me cry but not ugly cry, just sobs. I really like the story. To be honest, the story is quite confusing to me at first yet as soon as I get the hang of the story I get hooked in an instant. The story and the illustrations are perfect. It is short but it will make you cry or maybe not (depends on you I guess).

I am starting to love Patrick Ness the more I read his writings. I’ve only read the book one of his Chaos Walking trilogy last year and now I finished this book this month.

As I was reading this book I expected it to be the horror-mystery-thriller kind of a story but it’s not. But it’s not a disappointment. This book is marvelous and there are life lessons that could help people like Conor when it comes to dealing with his problem and those people who don’t will have an idea of how a kid deals with this kind of problem. It’s not just about the monster or Conor’s mom, it’s more than that. How a kid deals with his mom being sick and how is it affecting him, how he become at school and towards his friends. The story is very realistic, even the monster part because each of us has our own monsters.

The illustrations may look scary if you just flip the pages and browse, but when you are reading it, it would make sense and it fits well in the story. I think it is best to just dive in the story without knowing anything and without expectations. I have one advice for those who are planning to read this, GET SOME TISSUES. This book will make you cry, or maybe it’s only me.