Skip to content

Book Review: A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls

I just finished reading (for a second time) the most beautiful book, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.  If you have a child in your family that is dealing with a parent’s cancer, this is the book for you.  Hell, I’m 29, lost my mother to cancer 4 years ago, and this was the book for me!

In the book, a young boy, Conor, is wrestling with something that brings a nightmare each night.  The fear grips at his chest and he sometimes wakes screaming out.  His mother has cancer and her illness is affecting more and more of daily life around him.  Add in nightly visits from a harrowing monster, and you have a heart wrenchingly beautiful story of grief, destruction, and healing.

I highly suggest this book.  While my own fear did not manifest itself as a nightmare or as a monster come walking, Conor describes exactly how I felt about the last pieces of my mother’s illness.  I finished this book with tears streaming down my face, feeling drained and also relieved that someone had put into words the feelings that still sometimes wake me in the middle of the night.

Without giving more details, and I realize that some of this has been a bit vague, you must go and read this book!