I just finished reading A Monster Calls a couple of hours ago, and now is the soonest I could get here to share my feelings on it (really, this book gives you All Of The Feels.) It’s probably common knowledge that this book was written by Patrick Ness based on the idea that Siobhan Dowd [**EDIT**I was wrong. Not everyone knows, I’ve had questions about this. See end of post for more on this!] never had the time to see into fruition as cancer took her life young.
Do not be fooled by this book being labelled as a Children’s Book!
A beautifully moving book, everyone should read this. The illustrations by Jim Kay (which interestingly were drawn using of all kinds of textures: fingerprints, breadcrumbs, and even beetles!) are visually stunning and a great accompaniment to the story of young 13 year old Conor whose mother is suffering with terminal cancer. This is not a scary read at all, rather, the monster in the book is nothing like a conventional monster, but a yew tree man as old as time itself who has wise tales to share with Conor in order to help Conor himself tell the truth he needs to tell (and face) in the end…
Two words: read it.
**EDIT:**
Here’s a footnote with some deets to clear up some misconceptions I’ve heard with regard to A Monster Calls. This book has nothing to do with Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy (That trilogy’s a super read, by the way. Nothing you’ll be expecting. A twist at every corner, after every page. If you’ve never picked it up, do so, because it will blow your mind, five times over.)
Siobhan Dowd’s had the time to publish two books before her untimely death (I’ve read A Swift Pure Cry, by the way. It’s been many years ago now and I dont remember much of it, I’d like to reread it some time), and another two were published posthumously. Waterstone’s named Dowd, in May 2007, as one of 25 “Authors of the Future”. By a bitter irony, three months later she died, at the age of 47, from breast cancer. The general consensus is that Dowd had ‘many more books in her’ at her death. The publishers approached Ness with an outline, a skeleton for a book she wanted to write but did not get quite have the time to. Even while reading, it’s quite apparent that the idea and foundation of the story is Siobhan Dowd’s, while the writing and way with words has Ness’ signature style. Makes for an even richer story, in my opinion.
This is a short book, at just over 200 pages and plenty of illustrations, I bet it would take up perhaps around 5 accumulated hours of reading time, and not much more, to finish. Definitely worth picking up.
ponder palace 
