A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness- Book Review

 A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness - Book Review

A Monster Calls is a short novel by Patrick Ness built upon an idea from the late Siobhan Dowd and illustrated by Jim Kay. It tells the story of Conor O'Malley, an English schoolboy. One day a great monster comes up to his window- but monsters aren't real, they're for babies. However, this monster is nothing like that- it came for Conor, and from him, it wants the truth…

**This book review contains spoilers for this book. If you still want to read the review, go ahead. However, I strongly recommend you to read this book before reading my review.**

 

A Monster Calls is one of those rare books that really shake you up, a gut-wrenching emotional rollercoaster vibrating with rawness, anger, and grief.

I actually read this book in one day- After my ninth grade English teacher recommended it to me when I had nothing to read, I spent the rest of the school day reading it whenever possible, and promptly returned the book when school ended.

The best thing I liked about this book was how Conor really came to life, not only as a character but as a real person. The reader can see how Conor is feeling, and instead of the narration being detached from the story, Patrick Ness's words pour Conor's raw emotions into our body. 

The ink on the pages drown us in Conor's sadness, his frustration, then his anger— anger and hateful energy so hot and overflowing, like a never-ending furious fire, like an explosion that doesn't stop— then finally in his grief. 

Some of the most prevalent topics explored deeply in this story is truth, isolation and human nature; the monster tells his stories his to help Conor understand the truth about human nature, and the school serves as a place of isolation where Conor only experiences more and more pain. For example, after the monster finishes his first story, he explicitly tells Conor that “ There is not always a good guy. Nor is there always a bad one. Most people are somewhere in between. ” The truth about humans is that they are imperfect- No human is only a 'good guy' or a 'bad guy', and humans often contradict themselves in their thinking. The monster says that “ humans are complicated beasts ”, and that “You do not write your life with words. You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do .” 

Interpreting this, the monster is telling Conor that humans have to be judged by their actions since their thoughts are constantly changing but an action never does. This makes sense in a way—since no human can see our thoughts, we only have to judge on what we can see, which are actions. It's apparent in our life- if you think someone likes you, you'll start looking for signs that he or she actually does. You're looking for actions, which you can see, to confirm their thoughts, which you can't. Another example is Sherlock Holmes. He has amazing powers of deduction and seemingly can see everything about a person with a single glance; however, he sometimes gets his predictions wrong, and that is because Holmes can only see the man's actions or evidence of them. Holmes, like any other human, cannot see inside the minds of others. That's just how important actions are, since the world judges you by your actions and not thoughts. Here's another similar quote from the book:

“ It does not matter what you think, because your mind will contradict itself a hundred times each day. You wanted her to go at the same time you were desperate for me to save her. 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. ”

It's true- our minds contradict themselves so much, and even if they don't, our actions contradict them. As Patrick Ness says in his book Monsters of Men , “ the worst is the one who knows better and does nothing ”. 

I had so many favorite scenes in this book as almost all the scenes were so deep and emotional, but if I had to choose it would be the telling of the third tale, where Conor and the monster make Harry- and the rest of the school - see him. I loved it because it was so filled with raw emotion (as are almost all the other scenes in this book) and I could fully understand and feel Conor's anger and frustration at not being truly seen. 

“ And if no one sees you, are you really there at all? ”

It's something to think about, as is just about every other sentence in the book. This particular quote is like the problem of the tree falling in the woods- If a tree falls and no one hears it, does it make a sound? 

You could think and ruminate and surmise and suppose and contemplate and ponder and cogitate and think on this as long as you like, but what I've come to believe is that this problem remains a problem only because humans are dependent on others' judgment of themselves to know themselves better. The question is that if no human being acknowledges your existence, if you are so cut off from the world that you have only yourself, do you still exist. However, the answer to this question may be yes—Descartes phrased it as “I think, therefore I am”. If you have the capability to wonder if you are there at all, you think, therefore you exist. 

In conclusion, this book is an amazing, heartwrenching, raw, emotional, fast read that will probably leave you in tears, strong emotions at the very least. A review is not enough to describe it!

I would strongly highly extremely very recommend this book for grade 7 and up.

Rating: Definitely a 5/5. Definitely. It's more than worth it.