Pretty much every night, Conor wakes up screaming from the same nightmare. So when the monster shows up in his garden, just after midnight, he’s not as scared as you may have thought that he’d be. After all, he deals with some pretty unpleasant things on a daily basis. The bullies who pick on him in school. The fact that he seems to be falling out with his only friend. The teachers either ignoring him or being overly understanding and solicitous. His father, who seems […]
A Workout for Your Tear Ducts
This is a beautifully written YA novel that is appropriate for all ages and deals with a terrifying topic: the illness of a parent. The idea for A Monster Calls originated with writer Siobhan Dowd who died before she could write it. Author Patrick Ness was approached to create a story from Dowd’s notes, and he has produced a painfully honest and sad account of how a 13-year-old boy handles the illness of his mother. You will cry, but this story is so beautiful and […]
I’m not crying, you’re crying
Patrick Ness is a stupid dumb-dumb. Who does he think he is, writing beautiful, meaningful, dark fairy tales for kids that work just as well on adults? I hated this stupid book and its stupid story with its stupid, stupid little boy of a main character. I hated how well thought out and tender it was talking about death and feelings and coming to terms with stupid, stupid things like grief. Connor is a thirteen-year old boy living alone with his very sick mother. He’s […]
“Stories are the wildest things of all”
This one packs a wallop in a short amount of time. I have been lucky that, even as an adult, I don’t have a lot of experience watching a loved one suffer for a long time from cancer or any other illness. In a Monster Calls thirteen year old Conor O’Malley, unfortunately, doesn’t have that blessing; his mother has been suffering from some form of cancer for an indeterminate amount of time. His grandmother comes to visit because it has been decided, since Conor’s father lives […]