Friday 9 September 2016

A Monster Calls // the most raw and beautiful thing I've ever read


Title: A Monster Calls
Author: Patrick Ness
Genre: Fantasy
Warnings: topic of death
Rating: 5 stars
A Monster Calls is the most raw and beautiful thing I've ever read. 

When I started reading this I had no idea of the impact it would have on me, yet somehow in the next 200 pages Ness managed to reel me in with the writing that I saw before in his Chaos Walking trilogy - the kind that says so much in hardly any words at all.

"Stories are wild creatures, the monster said. When you let them loose, who knows what havoc they might wreak?"
The more I sit and think, the more beauty I see in every single word of this book. I was wrong to think it was a kids book, or that it would be like anything else Ness has ever written. Or anything else anyone else has ever written, for that matter.

It is best to go into this book knowing nothing, but know this: this is about a boy whose mother has cancer, the nightmares that haunt him, and the monster that wants the truth from him.
"Sometimes people need to lie to themselves most of all."
I finished this book physically shaking and with tears in my eyes. It was so human. It was so genuine. A Monster Calls is a wholly other entity - a kind of magic blended with tragedy in a way so unique it could never be replicated.

2 comments:

  1. I'd never heard of this book before, though I have heard of Ness. It's now on my TBR. Thank you for the wonderful review.

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    1. That's awesome! Ness is a brilliant author and I knew that I had to read this ASAP given that it's so short and it's been adapted into a movie.
      You're welcome and thanks :)

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