Rainy Day Reads

I’m kicking off a new series in which I will give 5 book recommendations based on a subject. And in honor of Halloween we are kicking off with monsters. I don’t read a lot of super scary books, but I still managed to find 5 books with monsters, although some of these monsters perhaps don’t fit the conventional monster stereotype. From "A Monster Calls" This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab This is part one of a duology. The story takes place in a dystopian version of our world. A city is divided between a corporation that deal out their version of justice, and a mob boss using monsters for his own gains. In this world monsters are created by bad actions - you hurt someone, you spark the creation of a monster. Both sides of the city are trying to control things in their own way, but when Kate and August get caught in the middle, the unstable equilibrium threatens to topple. Kate is the daughter of the mob boss, and she wants nothing more than to be as tough as he...

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 ...