A Monster Calls

Crafted out of an idea young adult author Siobhan Dowd was not able to bring to fruition before her death, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness introduces us to numerous monsters as well as to Conor, the boy they both plague and may ultimately save. One of the beasts Conor faces is amorphous and duplicitous. It is his mothers cancer and it has turned Conor’s life into a shell of what it once was making him the target of both bullying and pitied ostracism at school as well as an adult in responsibility while still a child mentally. Yet it is also the cancer that brings the other monster calling. The literal monster.

Part Conor’s nightmare, part terror of the natural world given face and form, the monster is an ancient, craggy Yew tree from the cemetery next door come to life.  Awesome in size, anger, and power, this beast strangely arrives promising to help Conor. This help comes in the form of three stories that the monster will tell Conor one by one as he becomes ready for them.  In return though, Conor must tell this monster the truth. A truth that may be his undoing.  

A Monster Calls is a supernatural thriller, folktale, and despairingly realistic tragedy woven together. Although this combination sounds both ominous and out-there, it is precisely the marvelous pairing of these disparate elements that counters the difficult and depressing realism that a losing battle with cancer presents. It is also this unique combination that allows Ness to portray the emotional, mental, and physical complexities that a 13 year old in such a difficult situation must face. 

Told with a proliferation of staccato sentences and paired nearly page by page with deeply malefic and almost abstract black and white illustrations by Jim Kay, A Monster Calls importantly though, does not provide easy answers. Instead, Ness asks Conor and the reader to interpret truth, to pick from the better of multiple evils, and to realize that life is not simple. It is this crucial lesson that in the end not only helps Conor but will leave all readers and especially teens with a broader, more realistic look at the hard decisions and situations that life sometimes places before us.