Book Review: A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls is a low fantasy novel written by Patrick Ness and based on original idea from the late Siobhan Dowd. I've been aware of this book for a long time now and I always made a point to sit down and give it a read after spending time watching Patrick Ness' contribution to the Doctor Who universe with Class. I always appreciated how Class tried to showcase a lot of realistic issues young adults face in the modern era while also telling captivating science fiction stories. It's through Class I formed the desire to sit down and give more of Ness' written work a read so I figured it'd be worth starting with one of his most recognisable pieces of literature. 

The story of A Monster Calls follows thirteen year old Conor O'Malley as he finds himself visited by a monster who takes the form of a Yew tree from the church on the top of the hill. The monster intends to visit Conor and tell him four tales that will help him face the reality of his present situation. Conor's present situation revolves around his mother, who is suffering from a very progressive and late stage form of cancer.  As the story unfolds and Conor watches his mother's cancer take a tighter hold on her health we see how this continuously impacts him through the relationship he shares with multiple characters across the book. The reality of Conor's situation get's even more depressing as the story unfolds and in turn the tales the monster tells reflect the tragedy in relevant and meaningful ways.

I really appreciated how the novel utilises fantasy elements to convey a very natural and realistic coping mechanism when facing the very heavy concept of losing a loved one to cancer. The journey Conor goes on throughout this book is filled with so many emotional sequences and Ness does an incredible job in reflecting the fragile and chaotic life that he's facing through each day. The way Ness conveys both a very realistic narrative all the while running a fairly robust fantasy narrative parallel with it is really smart, especially when he links all of it together in such a smart and intrinsic fashion. I love the way Ness wrote a lot of the characters here as well. Conor is obviously the main character and you get a very clear perspective on how he feels throughout the course of the story in terms of the emotions he tries to suppress and the strained relationships he shares with the extended character set.  The supporting characters around Conor also serve greatly to challenge his own emotional state and help him face the reality he's trying so hard to fight against. The biggest supporting character is the monster itself and it's written in such a clever fashion that it genuinely feels like an otherworldly entity with a great layer of mystery behind it. I enjoyed the tales it had to tell and how smartly they reflected  the situations Conor was facing and how to appropriately deal with them.

The pacing and tone structure of the book are set up perfectly in line with the narrative too. For a 240 page book, it accomplishes such a comprehensive narrative from beginning to end with such ease. I think it's a testament to Ness as a writer that he can tell such a emotionally charged story and cover the complicated nuances and concepts through two parallel narratives and keep the pace feeling consistent. The tone too feels very respectful when you consider what type of narrative this is as well. Losing a loved one to cancer is a tough and complicated process that is never easy for anyone to go through. What Ness does here is cover the cruel and desperate reality of this journey and uses the fantastical element as a means of further conveying methods to come to terms with it, it's brilliant stuff!

A Monster Calls is an amazing book in nearly every sense. I think how Ness and Dowd approached this story deserves so much credit. They took what is a really depressing and difficult period in some peoples lives and found a way to help encourage ways to cope and approach them in an engaging and endearing narrative. It's' beautiful and sad but I appreciate everything it set out to do from beginning to end.