Review: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
This book was written by Patrick Ness, but it is based on an idea from Siobhan Dowd, who passed away before she could finish the book she had in mind. It is illustrated by Jim Kay, and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal.
Beware of spoiler-y bits below. Nothing too revealing, but it's hard to talk about this book without mentioning a few key points.
This book is about a boy who gets visited by a monster. The monster comes to the boy to help him come to terms with what is happening in his life and how he feels about these events. The monster will tell the boy three stories and then the boy has to tell the monster the truth. And that scares the boy, because he is afraid to even admit the truth to himself. The stories the monster tells all take an unexpected turn, but the monster has good reasoning for how these stories end. And these stories make you think about right and wrong and the grey area and what people are willing to do in order to achieve their goals.
The illustrations by Jim Kay were beautiful and complemented the story without overshadowing it.
This is a book with a lot of raw emotion, it's well written and well thought out. It keeps you guessing about the end, and although the ending is not really happy, it ties the story together. To be honest, it probably wouldn't have worked with a happy ending.
I gave this 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. I would recommend this to just about anyone regardless of age, barring the very youngest.
Beware of spoiler-y bits below. Nothing too revealing, but it's hard to talk about this book without mentioning a few key points.
This book is about a boy who gets visited by a monster. The monster comes to the boy to help him come to terms with what is happening in his life and how he feels about these events. The monster will tell the boy three stories and then the boy has to tell the monster the truth. And that scares the boy, because he is afraid to even admit the truth to himself. The stories the monster tells all take an unexpected turn, but the monster has good reasoning for how these stories end. And these stories make you think about right and wrong and the grey area and what people are willing to do in order to achieve their goals.
The illustrations by Jim Kay were beautiful and complemented the story without overshadowing it.
This is a book with a lot of raw emotion, it's well written and well thought out. It keeps you guessing about the end, and although the ending is not really happy, it ties the story together. To be honest, it probably wouldn't have worked with a happy ending.
I gave this 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. I would recommend this to just about anyone regardless of age, barring the very youngest.
Comments
Post a Comment