A Monster Calls – Patrick Ness

Jeroen over at A Sky of Books and Movies reviewed this some time ago, and I was intrigued enough to pick it up the very next day. He throws the word Masterpiece in his review, and after finishing it in about two sittings (which in itself speaks volumes about this tiny book) I can happily agree. Frankly, Jeroen strikes me as a better reviewer and a less lazy reader, so his review is certainly worth a look. And thanks for the recommendation.

That being said, I do want to see if I can challenge myself to get a few words down about this book.

Horror is not my genre. In movies I find it campy and usually not very good. I am remind of something I once heard quipped regarding the reaction to the horror genre “the minute I had a mortgage I could no longer be scared of monsters”. I think the ultimate horror story for me is just most of us trying to get through our struggles in life in the face of the existential emptiness of it all. I perhaps spend too much time looking at the real world problems to look under the bed for goblins anymore.

But not all monsters hide in the closet, and that is the monster in this story. The monster in this story confronts a child named Connor, who is currently going through a pretty troubling time in his life. And Connor isn’t scared of this monster and the reason for this is because he is so much more troubled by a much more real monster that is haunting his dreams.

The whole story is monster as metaphor, and while reduced to that it sounds cliche, it didn’t feel that way to me. The story ended just as I expected it to, but the author leads you to this place in a way that is clear and unambiguous. This is a book of for teenagers, so we can perhaps forgive a lack of subtly to achieve this effect. But the interactions between Connor and the monster he encounters in this story are interesting, and not what you are expecting when you open this book up.

Masterpiece? I don’t have much use for the word to begin with, but this is certainly a book I expect to stay with me. It is certainly a book I would happily recommend to people. It was strong enough to give me some pretty emotional reactions. It passes a lot of check marks on the the aesthetic experience checklist.

That for me is good enough.