A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
5 out of 5 stars.

“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.”

Goodreads Description: The monster showed up after midnight. As they do. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming…This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth.

I am not sure how well this post will come out, because it’s kind of hard to explain how I felt about A Monster Calls. I could give the generic response of “I loved this book so much”, but I think this book deserves a lot more than. I’m not sure I can put my thoughts into proper words, but I’ll try.

A Monster Calls was so hard to read. It was one of the saddest books I’ve ever read. I found myself tearing up and crying quite a bit. It tore my heart into a million pieces. I felt connected to Conor instantly and you can’t read this book without feeling all of the things that he felt. Or being so protective of him and getting angry and mad at the world and his reality. He had to deal with a lot and he’s only just a kid.

I had the hardcover copy of the book that has the illustrations and I really enjoyed them. It was cool to get to see the story come to life in another way. I like to visualize things in my head, but I don’t know if I would have captured the monster and other scenes in the book as well as those illustrations did. I thought they were perfect for the story.

I had a love/hate for the monster. I wanted him to fix the world for Conor and when Conor got angry at him, I found myself getting angry at him too. I liked the stories that he told Conor and I found myself sticking tabs on almost everything that came out of the monster’s mouth, lol.

Overall, I loved this book. I loved Conor, I loved the monster. I loved the message behind it all. Even though it was such a sad story, it was an amazing one. It is one that I know I will remember for years and years. I know that this post does not do justice to how great this book is, so I highly recommend reading it. I would also recommend reading the illustrated version, because it makes it even better.

“Stories are important. They can be more important than anything. If they carry the truth.”

Have you read A Monster Calls? If so, what did you think?

I hope you have a great Monday!