I opened “A Monster Calls’ with glee, as both Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd are favourite authors of mine. There was little hint on the cover of the content of the novel, except that this would be very different to both authors’ previous work. Even the blurb wasn’t very helpful: “…Darkly mischievous and painfully funny…” said nothing to me. The illustrations by Jim Kay were darkly beautiful, but still gave no real clue. Perhaps it was a fantasy?

So I was totally unprepared for the road ahead. I read the book in one sitting. We have all known a Conor. Maybe some of us have been in Conor’s place, but at some time in our life we will journey with him and not forget his story. It’s a story of pain and grief, of mixed emotions in the face of losing someone we love. Told in lyrical, almost mythical prose, this is a beautiful, multi-layered read which slowly unfolds and carries us with it through Conor’s pain (and our own).

It struck me near the end of the book how heart-breakingly close this story was to Siobhan’s heart, and how tenderly Patrick had carried it in his hands, made it his own and truly done it justice. From here on, as Patrick says in the book’s introduction, the story lives on in the heart of the reader. Mrs O.
Reserve ‘A Monster Calls’ here.