Review: A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So apparently The Knife of Never Letting Go wasn't my first Patrick Ness book after all. Turns out I read this one...three years ago? And I wasn't impressed at first, for whatever reason, and managed to forget I ever read it to begin with.

But now that I've picked the book up again in anticipation of the forthcoming movie, I know what I was clearly missing.

Like Knife, this book is shelved in the YA section at the library despite containing a protagonist of MG age - though unlike Knife, the YA placement doesn't come from tons of violence and other adult content. Instead, it's probably there because of the heavy content involved. It wouldn't be a Patrick Ness book without death, would it? In this case, the death being the imminent one of young Conor's cancer-stricken mother. And then there's the titular monster, a peculiar blend of traditional English giant and a golem, who forces Conor to confront his demons by actually manifesting as one.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to catch the movie in theaters, but even if I don't, I at least hope that it doesn't bomb at the box office the way The BFG did. Especially since Ness himself is writing the screenplay, a pretty rare privilege in the world of book adaptations.

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