A Monster Calls

I first read this soon after it was published in 2011. I reread it this year because I wanted to see how well it would hold up after so many years. I wasn't disappointed. To begin with, it remains a moving tribute to the wonderfully talented Siobhan Dowd (author of Bog Child and Solace of the Road), who died far too soon of cancer. Ness paints the character of his protagonist, Conor, with admirably spare prose, and the story builds by accretion, so that the monster's tales become gradually intertwined with Conor's own path towards acceptance and mourning. Solidly YA… show more.

Targeted towards children, A Monster Calls is a classic novel for all ages. It is a moving and complex portrayal of grief through a fantasy lens.

I cried so much reading this book and faced hard truths about loss, just as the main character did in coming to terms with his mother’s passing.

It’s been said by smarter people than me how writing horror for kids isn’t about scaring them, it’s about showing them how brave they are.

A Monster Calls is the perfect illustration of that. The scariness and the spookiness are a stand-in for the real-life horrors that this kid is facing. Kids deal with a lot, and this book is the perfect example of how to survive when the worst happens.

The artwork too—wow! I wish I could get some of this artwork to hang on my walls. Absolutely gorgeous book.

I’ll always be haunted by this book, based on an idea conceived by Siobhan Dowd before she died…and then taken up and written by Patrick Ness.

A boy whose mother is terminally ill notices a monster outside his window at night, getting closer and closer. But the monster isn’t coming to hurt him; rather, he’s come to join the boy as he faces and navigates loss. Painfully truthful and beautiful.  

I need to pause here, because writing this article has made me think about our need as a species to be able to see ourselves through the eyes of others. A need to empathize and to know that others suffer the same traumas we do and also experience the same joy that we do.

Though categorized as YA, this novel has wide appeal. It’s a story of a child who is dealing with grief, but that experience is handled in a gentle, impactful way with plenty of metaphor. Published in 2011, I read it at a time when I was… show more.

This dark fantasy book had me sobbing more than once, thanks to some great writing and the personal resonance it had for me at the time of reading. It’s marketed as YA fiction, but don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s only for young adults—it’s for everyone, especially if they’re struggling with grief. Siobhan Dowd came up with the story while fighting cancer and sadly died before it could be written, but Patrick Ness has created something beautiful, melancholy, and strangely uplifting from her original idea, in which the young Connor befriends a monster who tells him three stories before… show more.

This is a quick and heartfelt read that explores loss, love, and truth. It centers around Conor, a boy with a sick mother, who is struggling with bullies in school. One night, a monster visits him, demanding his truth. Throughout their encounters, the monster tells Conor original stories that smack with all the weight of ancient fables. It offers a classic story-within-the-story that helps Conor understand his circumstances through new eyes and access a deeper part of himself. 

Conor’s mother is sick, and for three nights, a monster comes to tell Conor a new story. On the fourth night, the monster demands that Conor tells his story. A true story. In this way, the monster helps Conor to grieve and come to terms with the fact his mother is dying. A Monster Calls is a beautiful novel, hauntingly illustrated, for anyone—young or old—who has struggled to grieve and accept that death is a part of life.

Monsters can be stand-ins for something external that must be fought—social injustice, racism, fate—but Ness’s yew tree monster is a stand-in for something internal that must be accepted. This monster is beautifully ambiguous, sometimes appearing as the shadow left by loss. Sometimes it seems to be 13-year-old Conor’s hyperactive neurons firing off dream stories to help him deal with his mother’s premature death. Or maybe it is an ancient, primal force, giving Conor permission for the destructive expression of pain. Not that it really matters in the end. I’ve seen this called a middle-grade book, I suppose because of the… show more.

A Monster Calls is a true masterpiece of writing and illustration, and a must-have for any home or school library. We follow Conor as he begins to process and understand his mother's illness. While the story uses the foil of a mythical tree monster come to life, this is the story of how we can move through emotions and come out the other side changed. The monster challenges Conor, and challenges us the reader, to be honest, to be fully in touch with our feelings. He tells us that there is a path through hard times and difficult emotions, with… show more.