Title: A Monster Calls
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
Author: Patrick Ness and Siobhan Down(Adapted from her original idea)
Publisher: Candlewick
Publication: August 2nd 2016(this edition)
Cover Rating: 3/5
Let's start this review with a little bit of honesty. Does that sound good? Okay.
I never thought I would read A Monster Calls. I have owned 4 or 5 different copies over the years. Recently, I picked up the paperback movie edition from Wal-Mart. It was super late and I was just looking for something to bring my Goodreads Challenge up. I didn't end up reading it until now, which happens to be almost 3 months later. If it wasn't for me watching a YouTube reading wrap-up video and hearing someone say it made her cry silent tears, I probably never would have picked this book up. But, I did. And I am so thankful. This book was beautiful and sad and so painful. The ending tore my heart out. The ending is on of my biggest fears. I know everyone eventually dies but it is still my fear.
So let's talk about the book rather than how the book ripped my heart out.
Conor is the main character. He is a 13 year old boy that is dealing with his mother having cancer. He cooks, cleans, does the chores and goes to school where he is bullied. He leads a pretty hard life.
Then we have the giant tree on the movie cover of this book. What do you think the tree has to do with the book? Well, read it and find out! Hahaha.
So then we have Conor's father, who left them for some chick in the USA. His grandmother, mothers mom, who seems like this very horrible tyrant type woman. Lily, who used to be his childhood friend until she betrayed him. And finally we have his "school life".
I treat his school life as a person or entity because it is so overbearing. Conor gets ignored, bullied, pitied and many other horrible acts. Most of these acts are because of his mothers cancer. I have no idea what would possess someone to be horrible to a person because their parent has a life threatening illness. But this book was set "across the pond", so not in the USA, so maybe stuff is different there.
Regardless of his school life, he has to face the his mother might not be here much longer. Because of this, someone appears in his life asking him for the truth. The truth being a nightmare he has been having. In the end of the book everything becomes clear and it is so heartbreaking. You might hope for one thing to happen but still want something else to happen. Just because you think something bad, doesn't make you a terrible person. We are all human and we make mistakes. In Conor's situations, he had to tell the truth of his dream, it might not have been exactly what he wanted, but it was one of many truths he had inside of him.
Sadly, the book did not make me cry, and that is what I was looking for. It was so sad and I did find myself with a quivering lower lip, but no tears.
Overall, I gave the book 4.5/5 stars.
I never thought I would read A Monster Calls. I have owned 4 or 5 different copies over the years. Recently, I picked up the paperback movie edition from Wal-Mart. It was super late and I was just looking for something to bring my Goodreads Challenge up. I didn't end up reading it until now, which happens to be almost 3 months later. If it wasn't for me watching a YouTube reading wrap-up video and hearing someone say it made her cry silent tears, I probably never would have picked this book up. But, I did. And I am so thankful. This book was beautiful and sad and so painful. The ending tore my heart out. The ending is on of my biggest fears. I know everyone eventually dies but it is still my fear.
So let's talk about the book rather than how the book ripped my heart out.
Conor is the main character. He is a 13 year old boy that is dealing with his mother having cancer. He cooks, cleans, does the chores and goes to school where he is bullied. He leads a pretty hard life.
Then we have the giant tree on the movie cover of this book. What do you think the tree has to do with the book? Well, read it and find out! Hahaha.
So then we have Conor's father, who left them for some chick in the USA. His grandmother, mothers mom, who seems like this very horrible tyrant type woman. Lily, who used to be his childhood friend until she betrayed him. And finally we have his "school life".
I treat his school life as a person or entity because it is so overbearing. Conor gets ignored, bullied, pitied and many other horrible acts. Most of these acts are because of his mothers cancer. I have no idea what would possess someone to be horrible to a person because their parent has a life threatening illness. But this book was set "across the pond", so not in the USA, so maybe stuff is different there.
Regardless of his school life, he has to face the his mother might not be here much longer. Because of this, someone appears in his life asking him for the truth. The truth being a nightmare he has been having. In the end of the book everything becomes clear and it is so heartbreaking. You might hope for one thing to happen but still want something else to happen. Just because you think something bad, doesn't make you a terrible person. We are all human and we make mistakes. In Conor's situations, he had to tell the truth of his dream, it might not have been exactly what he wanted, but it was one of many truths he had inside of him.
Sadly, the book did not make me cry, and that is what I was looking for. It was so sad and I did find myself with a quivering lower lip, but no tears.
Overall, I gave the book 4.5/5 stars.
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