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What Members Thought
This is a powerful story about coming to terms with loss, told with amazing illustrations and allegory. There is great humor and anger commingled in this novel about a thirteen-year-old boy named Patrick whose mother is dying of cancer. Patrick also has to cope with a couple of school bullies. He copes by imagining a yew tree in his yard has turned into a monster and is pursuing him, bent upon teaching Patrick some difficult lessons about life, in the form of three stories. The fourth story is P
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Nov 29, 2013
Christina Getrost
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fantasy
A beautiful, touching story; I could have put it in the Realistic Fiction shelf because other than the monster, it really is a realistic look at what happens to family members of cancer victims. Conor is having a hard time with the fact that his mother is dying from cancer; his divorced father is living in America with his new family and seems to be neglecting his only son; and at school he is just going through the motions, with classmates and teachers who treat him differently now that they kn
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When my book club selected A Monster Calls, I was unsure of what to expect. All I’d really heard about it was that it was good. Now when I look at the summary of this book, it gives me chills up and down my books. A Monster Calls stirred fear and sadness within me, and has made me want to pick up everything else written by Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd.
If you haven’t already, go find a finished copy of A Monster Calls. It’s actually an illustrated book, which means that illustrations are embedde ...more
If you haven’t already, go find a finished copy of A Monster Calls. It’s actually an illustrated book, which means that illustrations are embedde ...more
Sep 29, 2011
Bethany Miller
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
1st-choice-books
Most kids would be frightened by a monster showing up outside their window in the middle of the night, but not Conor. Conor is not scared of the monster (that he knows is probably a dream anyway) because he has much worse things to fear – THE nightmare that terrifies him so much that he refuses to tell anyone about it…not his mother who is getting sicker every day, not his father who is busy with his new family, and certainly not his grandmother who keeps trying to talk to him about what will ha
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I was expecting emotional intensity and some brilliance (remember this is the man who brought us The Knife of Never Letting Go, which is also emotionally intense and absolutely brilliant) but I wasn't quite sure what form it would take. This is a much sparer story than the Chaos Walking trilogy, which was actually a relief and, I think, one of the story's strengths.
The dialogue is also perfectly spare - the characters leave so much out and say so much more by doing so. The mythological and fair ...more
The dialogue is also perfectly spare - the characters leave so much out and say so much more by doing so. The mythological and fair ...more
4.5 I haven't cried this hard when reading a book in quite some time...the illustrations were fantastic, very moving story. This may be a book that librarians/adults enjoy more than teens...I think a mature/deep thinking middle schooler/teen would like the book.
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Beautiful and terrible, predictable and unexpected, and just brilliant. A mess of contradictions, just like us flawed humans.
A powerful book that taps into the heaviness of grief and the complexity of letting go of a dying parent. The main character is visited by a "monster" made from a yew tree, a tree full of healing properties. The fantastic parts of the book really fit because times when a loved one is sick are often so surreal. Heartbreaking, but worth reading. Amazing illustrations are throughout the book- the right person could make this into an amazing movie.
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Incredible, incredible book.
But SO sad. I cried myself to sleep after reading this.
Already warned that maaaybe my motherless self shouldn't read this one, but I love Patrick Ness so much I'm going to push on through the inevitable weeping. ...more
But SO sad. I cried myself to sleep after reading this.
Already warned that maaaybe my motherless self shouldn't read this one, but I love Patrick Ness so much I'm going to push on through the inevitable weeping. ...more
One of the most mesmerizing reading experiences I've had in 2014.
A must have book for any middle school or high school library. ...more
A must have book for any middle school or high school library. ...more
Brutal and healing both. The first and second tales were my favorite parts - I loved the moral ambiguity and tricksiness of them.
Really really good. Appreciated the uniqueness of the format and the story will just blow you away.
Sep 14, 2011
Emily Briano
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
young-adult-fiction
Aug 30, 2012
Chelsea
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
ya,
out-of-the-ordinary
