A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

From Good Reads:
This is an extraordinarily moving novel about coming to terms with loss. The monster showed up just 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 nightmare 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, though, is something different. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.
It wants the truth.

Patrick Ness spins a tale from the final story idea of Siobhan Dowd, whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself. Darkly mischievous and painfully funny, A Monster Calls is an extraordinarily moving novel about coming to terms with loss from two of our finest writers for young adults.

My thoughts:


A Monster Calls is a masterpiece. I was captivated by the story behind this book- that Siobhan Dowd had the idea but was not able to write the novel before dying from cancer. I LOVED the author forward where Patrick Ness explained why he was at first hesitant to write someone else's story and why he ultimately did. I am so happy that I loved the actual book as much as I loved the backstory to the book. 

The emotion in this book is so powerful and the black and white illustrations are magnificent. It is pretty unusual to have illustrations in a YA novel and they really help to capture the horror and hope of this story. 

I am anxious to see what my student readers think of this book. I suspect they will really like it, although for different reasons than me. As a mother I found myself relating to how Conor's mother must feel. You hear about adult titles that appeal to a YA market, well I think this is a YA title that will also appeal to an adult market. 

As I said at the start of this review-- it is a masterpiece.