“The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do.”

With this line, Patrick Ness draws us into the devastating tale of Conor O’ Malley, a 13-year-old boy who is going through something unimaginable: his mother’s cancer diagnosis. The only way to cope? Talking to his new friend, a monster. After all, why would Conor be afraid of a monster? He has other things to fear, things he can’t talk about. Alone and ridden with guilt, he doesn’t know how he can ever face his reality. But sometimes, you can find kindness in the most unlikely places, even from a beast. Using humor, satire, and beautifully simple prose, Ness, along with illustrator Jim Kay, spins a sorrowful tale about grief, kindness, and self-forgiveness.

Ness’s writing style utilizes imagery rather than overt statements about characters’ emotions, which is in fact what makes it so poignant and raw. Conor’s inability to understand or cope with grief is something that nearly all middle grade and teenage readers can relate to. Foreshadowing and implications are all that life generally offers us, no clear cut signs that read grief or anger. Jim Kay’s illustrations, on the other hand, are deeply emotional and complex. The rough, tangled sketches of a monster without a clear face inspire a sense of fear in the reader, a nameless fear, parallel to the one Conor feels every day. 

Rather than a typical plot, A Monster Calls focuses on the development of the main character to measure the difference between the beginning and the end of the book. In fact, the entirety of the book focuses on Conor´s state of mind and how the various events in his external life affect his internal one. While bullying, cancer, and an absence of caretakers are all storylines in this book, their sole purpose is to highlight the contradictions and snowballing of Conor´s emotional state.

The entirety of the exposition and rising action can be summed up with one word: complex. There is no clear-cut villain (unless of course, you can count cancer as the villain) and this in itself raises a question that every teenager has struggled with: why do bad things happen? When a tragedy is completely senseless and there is nothing you can do, then why did it happen? If every person is both good and bad, right and wrong, then who do you blame?

With one scene, Patrick Ness turns a labyrinth into an incredibly simple point.

“I didn’t mean it,” Conor insists. 

“You did¨, the monster replies, ¨but you also did not. 

Conor sniffed and looked up to its face, which was as big as a wall in front of him. “How can both be true?”

 “Because humans are complicated beasts,” the monster replies. ¨Your mind will contradict itself a hundred times each day.” 

“How do you fight it?” Conor asked, his voice rough. “How do you fight all the different stuff inside?” ¨ By speaking the truth”, the monster said. As you spoke it just now. ¨This is why I came walking, to tell you this so that you may heal. ”

What if that’s all you can do? Speak the truth? What if that’s the hardest thing in the world?

Conor chooses to heed this advice, revealing his emotional state to his mother. The story is resolved as Conor tells the truth of his own story, and in doing so finds closure. In this way, Ness affirms the accuracy of the monsterś guidance, and does so in such a way that you feel as if your own open wounds are healing too.

I  highly recommend this book! I give it five stars, and recommend it for ages 10-16. If you like this book, try Pieces of Why by K.L Going, Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine, or Missing May by Cynthia Rylant. They have similar themes of grief, loss, and closure.

If you are dealing with a personal tragedy or the loss of a loved one, it’s important to talk about how you feel! Maybe reach out to a friend, a loved one, or if necessary, a counselor. I know there’s nothing anyone can do to take the loss away from you, but I sincerely hope you find what you need to carry on.