Review: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Published: September 27, 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.

I have never read a book quite as unique as this one. And I’ve never read a Patrick Ness book either and the beauty and imagery that is within this book makes me want to read every piece of work Patrick Ness has written, is writing and will write for the rest of time. Everything was written and thought out so perfectly to give us all a lesson one what Connor was going through.  A book which teaches us all about the weight and burden and difficulties of loss in life, especially through the eyes of such a young person.

Ness manages to portray such raw emotion especially towards the end. And it just made my heart ache how real and how real all of it was how real those emotions were. I’ve felt that loss I’ve fell the raw power of it and the hold it has on you when you can foresee that loss. And Ness found a way for even a person who hasn’t dealt with that yet, to understand what it feels like.

I’ve seen the way people have reacted to this book, and I have to say it most definitely is a heart-wrencher. It’s also impeccably illustrated.