A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Patrick Ness is an author of whom I am particularly fond. He spearheaded a fundraiser for Syrian Refugees in 2015, which rallied childrens' authors from around the world to raise over 200,000 pounds. It was truly inspiring.

I fell in love with his writing within the first few sentences of The Knife of Never Letting Go, the first volume of his Chaos Walking trilogy. I laughed out loud with delight. There is little to laugh about in A Monster Calls, but I would add it to any YA collection, nonetheless.

A Monster Calls tackles the difficult subject of losing a loved one, in this case losing a parent. Conor's Mom is dying of cancer, and this book is the story of how Conor processes this fact and all the feelings that surround it . . .being left adrift in the world, with only a grandmother who he doesn't get along with very well, feelings of sadness and pain, and feeling outcast and invisible at school. Most importantly, there is the guilt that Conor feels,because he has thought the unthinkable; he has wished for it all to be over and dreamed of letting his mother go to be taken by a monster, by death.

Though there is never a right age to deal with death in fiction (or in life), by our teenage years, most of us have lost someone dear to us, be it a grandparent, parent, friend, or even just a beloved pet. Teenagers are beginning to navigate the world on their own and to see beyond the platitudes they were told about death as children, "it was her time"; "God called him home"; "everything happens for a reason". This is a book that allows for the unleashing of grief, raw and real, in monster form, and the complexity of wanting both the platitudes and the truth. It is an acknowledgment that life is unfair, and that only by speaking our own truth can we make it through. "Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both"(p. 191).

While this book may not reflect the reality of most teen readers' lives (after all, very few of us have monstrous Yew trees out back waiting to be called to "come walking"), it reflects the emotional truth of how grief can feel, debilitating sadness coupled with anger coupled with despair. For those who have not lost a loved one, this book can provide a window into understanding what others are going through and can be a reminder that we don't always know what others are going through. The monster, the depth of feeling, rarely surfaces in daylight hours, and can be a surprise and a shock to those who don't know it is there. For all of these reasons, I recommend adding A Monster Calls to our YA collection.

Problems this book might encounter

This books could be seen as too intense for a young teen reader.

References
Ness, P. (2011). A monster calls. Candlewick Press: Somerville, MA.