A Monster Calls blogged by Andrew W.

Yesterday, I reviewed The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. Today, I shall report on A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (inspired by Siobhan Dowd). This is a picture book, but it's fairly dark and deals with some mature themes. A troubled boy named Conor, with an ailing mother, a divorced father, and a slightly unpleasant grandmother, is paid visits in the night by a huge monster, made of a yew tree. The monster tells Conor three tales in exchange for a fourth tale told by Conor. The boy thinks he knows what the fourth tale is, but dreads its coming even as the monster tells him a tale of royal backstabbing and intrigue, a tale of an apothecary and a holy man, and even a tale of Conor and his schoolyard bully. Finally, it comes time for the fourth tale: his recurring nightmare about losing his mother to a fiery monster, aka. cancer. The monster forces Conor to relive the nightmare, and helps him cope with the loss of his mother and make amends with his grandmother.