Review: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

This book had been recommended to me by a girl in Year 9 last year, and despite having owned a copy since December, I only just got around to reading it, in readiness for #yalc, where the author will be appearing. Having only read one of Ness's short stories before, this seemed like the book to start with as it not only won the CILIP Carnegie and Greenaway Medals for writing and illustration in 2012, it also won the National Children's Book of the Year, the Red House Children's Book Award and the Kitschies Red Tentacle award (Best Novel) for speculative fiction. Phew!

But does it live up to the hype? It's a relatively short book - just over 200 pages - but it feels even shorter, as it's absolutely compelling and un-put-downable! Conor, a teenage boy whose mum is battling cancer, is plagued by nightmares and then a monster visits his room one night. At first Conor assumes that it is just another nightmare, but when he awakes to find his bedroom floor covered in yew tree leaves, he realises he's going to have to give the monster what it wants - the truth.

I really enjoyed this book, as it blurred the lines between reality and dream, science and spirituality. In a way, it reminded me a lot of Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which also used magic and old gods to help a young boy through several experiences of loss. Both of these books have a magical quality of their own, that instantly immerses you in the world of the story, and has you feeling the pain, the fear and the comfort that the protagonists themselves experience. 

What I especially enjoyed about this book, were the stories told by the monster. Conor complains that they're terrible stories because they don't have happy endings, but these stories, to me, are captivating because they, A) establish that not all stories have happy endings, B) present a moral ambiguity that is true to real life, and C) highlight the complex, often contradictory nature of people. That's pretty heavy stuff for a YA book, but massively important stuff too, so hurray for Patrick Ness who doesn't shy away from the tough stuff or dumb it down for the younger audience! 

With that in mind, I don't think this book should be limited to a YA readership - there is an important message in this books for adults and children alike. Ultimately it is a magical story about the limits of reality. Sometimes bad things happen to good people and vice versa. Sometimes, even though you try your hardest and do everything you can to help someone, it' still not enough. Sometimes the kindest thing you can do, for others and for yourself, is to let go. This is a beautifully written, subtle and symbolic story that I would recommend certainly to teenagers, but also adults, especially the ones that think YA fiction is all about sparkly vampires and and other such nonsense!

  

Once I've completed my YALC readathon, I'm really looking forward to reading Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy and More Than This.