A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness is a book where a boy named Conor finds reconciliation with himself. The book starts with the main character struggling with himself and the situation around him. Along with his mother’s worsening cancer and his clashes with the people around him, Conor has nightmares about a monster which haunts him every night. One night, the main character wakes up to see a monster (not the one in his dreams) who takes the form of an old yew tree outside his house. The yew tree monster tells Conor three stories, each to teach the boy an important step in his life. Along with the stories, Conor’s life gets worse and worse as he creates terrible situations and as his mother seems to lose hope in her health. After the yew tree monster finishes telling his three stories, the monster makes Conor face the nightmare that he has dreaded so much. In this moment, the readers learn that Conor is very tired of trying to keep hope as his mother is dying and wants everything to end. He wants to let her go but blames himself for these thoughts. Conor soon learns to accept this fate and the book ends with the character standing by his mother’s deathbed and letting her go.
It has been a while since I have read such a great book as this. Many of the books I have read recently did not have the emotion and the fervor in this book. I have read so many ok books and listed them as five stars, but this book really showed me the beauty and the great feeling that one could experience through literature. When I finished it, I cried for ten minutes and I haven’t cried for a book in a long time. Even though the boy Conor doesn’t end up happy and his mother’s death will only make his life a harder reality, the character is able to face his own self and accept the fact he wanted to ignore so much. That was really the greatest part of the book. The relief the character is able to have translates to the readers, which is the reason why I cried.
There were many great elements to this story that created a five star book. The interactions Conor has with the monster really provides the kinships that the main character is missing in his life. In such a bleak world, a monster is the one who helps Conor to find and reflect himself but also finds a friend that he could talk to openly. This friendship really creates empathy from the reader. Also, the scene where Conor faces his one nightmare with the yew tree monster really provided a turning point for me. Usually in other books, many authors are not able to truly express the struggle that the characters are going through and make it seem as though it was not actually that important. However, Ness was able to create a climactic moment that expressed the obstacle Conor was overcoming and allowed the readers to understand and acknowledge his situation. Lastly, the scene where Conor watches his dying mother on her deathbed really struck the last emotion for me. For the main character to believe so hard that his mother was going to live finally was able to let her go and face the truth. It was the time where his mother and Conor were able to have the strongest connection in the book, which created the scene to be more meaningful.
The story in general was great, but the illustrations along the pages were also very expressive and amazing. All the illustrations are black and white and seem to be (I’m not sure if I’m right) drawn in pen, but they are able to show the parts of the story very well. Not only that, many of the illustrations interacted with the pages with words which allowed for the emotions and tone of story to be seen through the illustrations. Here are a few that I took from my copy of the book.
In conclusion, I would recommend this book from middle schoolers and beyond. If elementary students can understand situations such as Conor’s cancer, then that is fine too. The lesson of the story can be translated to anyone who reads it, so it is a definite must read. Also, any of those who are interested in art should read this book because it gives a great visualization of the story. For these reasons, I give A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.
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