Review : A Monster Calls : By Patrick Ness

Publisher : Candlewick 2011
Author : Patrick Ness
Inspired by : Siobhan Down
Pages: 224

I'm not sure that I can put into words the way that I felt about this book. It was beautiful, it was touching and it made me tear up several times. The book is about grief and how a young boy is dealing with his mom having cancer. I don't think there are any spoilers to give away, yet I am not going to go into a thick detail of the plot. I think it is better to say that I read this book in one sitting. I could not put this down for an instant, I needed to read the beauty all the way through till the end. It touched me, the writing style, the story, the characters, simply everything. It tugged at my heart strings throughout the book, but especially at the end because it had come to the end of the story. I wanted it go on and on but every good story has to come to an end.

Perhaps it touched me because as a young girl I lost my father, but I honestly think that anyone had ever watched a loved one be sick and had to deal with the possibility of them not being there anymore will have a fond appreciation for this book. Patrick Ness is a master of story telling and words, I hope to read more novels by him.

Another part of this book particularly touching to me was that the idea came from Siobhan Dowd, who unfortunately succumbed to cancer before she could publish this story. Luckily for us Patrick Ness was able to take the idea for the story and bring it to us.