A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness ★★★★★
By Patrick Ness, Jim Kay (illustrator), Siobhan Dowd (Conception)
Young Adult / Middle Grade
215 pages / Published 05.2011
The monster showed up 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 one 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 is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.
It wants the truth. (Official Synopsis)
Absolutely everyone… but seeing as how I should put in some effort to be objective I will be more specific:
A beautiful, beautiful book that speaks about grief and loss, with respect for (younger) readers. While reading it is simple enough as middle grade books tend to be, the matter at hand is not, and the author doesn’t patronize, only guides carefully and tactfully through the heaviness
Perfect marriage of words and illustration – the words would have been enough to make this a beautiful book, but the illustrations made it pluperfect; the eerie sense of calm and foreboding was like getting lost in a dark fairy tale – which made the story’s ending (the climb out) dazzling
There are books that we finish now and then that leave us with an ache in the heart. Maybe a gentle yet probing throbbing in the head, and maybe even a vague sense of longing at our fingertips to do something, anything, that might soak in more of the beauty that exists in the world. That was result of my reading this beautiful work of art, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and illustrator Jim Kay (inspired by Siobhan Dowd).
It is a wonderful thing that even as adults, “Middle Grade” books like these can affect us so deeply – perhaps even more deeply than our younger counterparts. Is it because life has given us our fair share of lashings that the dents and cracks we see in ourselves can let in the kind of light that comes in the form of sadness? Of grief, loss, dejection…? There is a tender beauty to all pain it seems, the more I grow and learn in this world.
A Monster Calls is a book that captures all this. It introduces us to a new way of perceiving our greatest fears, and speaks honestly and almost with brutal simplicity about the darkest places in our minds and hearts. I do believe it is the true mark of an artist to transform something so… complex and human into a simplicity that lets in light like this. Really, all I wanted to do after finishing this was say thank you to the wonderful people who invested vulnerable pieces of their selves into bringing this timelessly relatable book. From the ingenious concept of Sibohan Dowd to the words of Patrick Ness, to the perfectly illustrated atmosphere executed by Jim Kay, I couldn’t think of anyone else who would have done this better. I am sure this book will bring comfort and courage to many more people.
One of the most perfect books I’ve read in my – these are the books that keep me so desperately in love with books.
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