Lord. This book, A Monster Calls, should teach me to reserve books without paying any attention to a) who wrote them b) what they are about.
Patrick Ness. That should have given me at least a clue as to what we were in for when we started listening to the book on audio. But, I didn’t know he wrote it. I didn’t pay attention. It was a Cybils Shortlist and that’s all I knew.
Gah.
It started off nicely. Really nicely, actually. With a tribute to a YA author who had died. The name of the author sounded familiar but I couldn’t place it – so I looked it up when I came home that first day of listening to it and discovered … Siobahn Dowd, the author of The London Eye Mystery (which I loved), had died. I didn’t know that. So sad – but a super wonderful tribute to her starts this book off nicely.
And then there’s a Yew tree monster, which makes perfect sense and TW was nodding her head along with the story and I was smiling.
There’s a lot about stories – the power of stories – how they’re wild things and hold a lot of power.
See, great start, right?
Sure, it was obvious that this was going to be a tough read, Connor’s mom has cancer and that never ends well. His dad moved to the US and is never around, either. He’s got some bully problems at school. Pretty typical of a YA novel – throw in a story telling Yew tree monster and you’ve got one hell of a book.
And then the pain starts. The emotional and physical pain of listening to the story play out – the horrible, horrible nightmare of a story. The pain starts slowly, and works its way into your head first. And then it grabs hold of your heart and twists and does not let go until you’re a bloody, sobbing, mess.
This book – horribly wonderful. Really. Ness is a master storyteller. He is. And when he tells you a heartbreaking story, you literally feel your heart break.
Be careful with this book. If you’ve lost someone recently. If your child has lost someone or is terrified of losing someone she loves – she may not be ready for this one. Hell, it’s possible that nobody, ever, is ready for this book. But, it’s too good to NOT read. I would also suggest careful thought to the age of the child reading. This is on the Cybils shortlist as Middle Grade fantasy/science fiction, which in my house tends to mean 8-12. But, I’m not sure that’s right – it feels older, deeper and a whole lot scarier than some 8 year olds are ready for. It’s not the story of sex between the prince and the farmgirl, that’s tame. But it is very, very violent. And heart-wrenching, I mentioned that painful, heartbreaking horror – right?
There are books that stay with you for your whole life – this is going to be one of those books.
*Note: We listened to it on audio so we didn’t see the illustrations others speak so highly of – there is a bonus DVD in the audio book but I’m not sure I want to SEE those images. Listening may have been enough for me… We’ll see.*