Rating - ⭐⭐⭐
"At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting - he's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It's ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth."
A Monster Calls is a standalone fantasy novel by Patrick Ness.
I can see why so many people rave about this book, and I am honestly probably rating this lower than I should be, but what this comes down to was that I did not connect with the story on a personal level.
This covers a wide range of themes that could be hard to read about such as life and death, grief, suffering, and unhealthy coping mechanisms. While I can appreciate the story being told and the overall message and themes, I cannot relate to Conor because I have not been through what he is going through in this. That is more or less what it comes down to for me.
I do still think that this is an important well-written story that everyone could learn something from. This is also on the shorter side (under 300) and, while I usually find that a lot of authors don't know how to constrain a story properly in that amount of pages, but that was not the case for this one. So, if you are looking for something that is both short and meaningful, try this out. If you think that you may be triggered by the themes, then look up any trigger warnings before going in.
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