“You’re only young once, they say, but doesn’t it go on for a long time? More years than you can bear.”
Patrick Ness begins his novel A Monster Calls with this quote from Hillary Mantel’s An Experiment in Love, which should give you some indication before starting this story that it is going to be a heavy one. A Monster Calls is one of the most beautiful and raw stories that I’ve encountered in a long time. The book centers around Conor, a thirteen year old boy living in England with his mother who is sick with cancer. Conor is a troubled boy. He seems to be unable to accept his mother’s sickness so he tries to ignore it. He isolates himself from others and from his classmates. He tries to be invisible. And he is, until he begins to have nightmares (or is it real?) about the old Yew tree in his yard coming to life. But not just coming to life- becoming a monster. A monster who asks Conor for one thing- his truth.
A Monster Calls is a story about coming to terms with your feelings, especially those of loss. The book is illustrated with gorgeous drawings that make it very cinematic. In fact, they made a film based on the book. I would highly recommend this story to anyone, young adults and adults, and think that this story will make for an amazing film. It will not be released for another year though, so definitely read the book first!