A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness

Conor has the same dream every night, ever since his mother first fell ill, ever since she started the treatments that don't quite seem to be working. But tonight is different. Tonight, when he wakes, there's a visitor at his window. It's ancient, elemental, a force of nature. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth.

Patrick Ness takes the final idea of the late, award-winning writer Siobhan Dowd and weaves an extraordinary and heartbreaking tale of mischief, healing and above all, the courage it takes to survive.

Blurb taken from Goodreads.

✼

I was given this book for Christmas as a 'Blind Date With a Book' from my partner. He knows how much I love to read, and had the idea to choose me three books based off their descriptions, without knowing what they were; a brave decision, given how many books I have already!

The first book, with labels such as 'Healing', 'Truth', and 'Profound Fantasy' was A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. On opening the package, I recognised the author's name immediately, as when I was younger I read the Knife of Never Letting Go series, and loved it; I thought the idea was very different, and really interesting. Receiving A Monster Calls was therefore a pleasant surprise!

It was a good choice, because as soon as I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. It was very easy to follow and read, and had the most beautifully simple idea. Conor is trying to heal during a particularly difficult time, and the visits from the monster help him do so. The story really moved me, and I really empathised with Conor. I especially loved the stories the monster told with the hidden messages to help him along. A wonderfully thought-provoking book.

Rating: ✫✫✫✫✫

SPOILER ALERT

The Story

I'm finding it really difficult to get my thoughts down on paper about this book, purely because the story, and the meaning behind it, are not necessarily easy to explain. 

I loved the ease with which I could read the story. It was simplicity in its finest form, and I read the whole thing in one sitting. I suppose that with a young teenage boy at the heart of the story, it naturally becomes easier to read, as the narration is his thoughts translated into prose. I thought Conor was a great protagonist as well. He was kind and caring, but he also had a more feisty side which came out in his moments of sadness and anger. Essentially, he was real.

This means that his healing process was very raw and real as well, and the monster provided a great contrast to that. The monster actually intrigued me a lot. When he is first noticed by Conor, it isn't clear to the reader whether this is a dream or not. When, the next time the monster makes an appearance, it is clear that in Conor's eyes, the monster is very real, things start to become very interesting. It's difficult to say, upon finishing the book, whether or not the monster is real or a product of Conor's imagination. On the one hand, Conor sees leaves scattered over his floor when the monster has been, indicating real physical movement. On the other, when caught fighting in school, despite Conor's belief that the monster inspired the anger in him, nobody else is witness to this. It's an example of how imagination can be very real to an individual, and how much it affects a person's thoughts and feelings. 

This is, in its essence, an inward-thinking story. Conor's deepest feelings are what drives the narrative, and the plot itself is about healing. The story is heart-wrenching, and especially so because it's seen through Conor's eyes. Conor doesn't fully understand, as the reader does, that his mum is more sick than he realises, and that treatments don't necessarily always work. I felt very emotional at several points in the book empathising with Conor's experience.

The way the monster helped Conor through stories was a really different, really interesting touch. Each story has a moral, and it isn't what you initially expect. I loved the explanations that the monster gave for each story, and how it reflected Conor's own life. The final visit from the monster, where Conor reveals that he wants the suffering to be over, despite feeling he should be continuing to fight for his mum's survival, is heart-breaking.

This story is so emotional, and I felt it really captured the inner struggle of a person in pain. Pain isn't always straightforward, and the guilt that Conor felt over his own battle with the situation was important to display. 

The Verdict

It's almost impossible to put into words how much I appreciated this story (hence the badly done job of this review).

I loved Conor's narration; through the eyes of a child, the more difficult elements of the story become even more emotional and heart-breaking. I also loved how this made the book so easy to read. The simplicity of the story made it easy to devour.

But more than anything, I loved the different messages that I was able to take away from the book. 

Pain is not straightforward, and not easy to overcome. But more importantly, imagination is powerful, and should be nurtured. 

This is the kind of book everybody should read.