A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd

I am a proud pimp of Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy. To date, it is still the best YA series I have ever read. Beginning with the first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, the series just got better with each installment. Which is why it's a shame that there are only 3 books. Which is why I have begun to look out for anything Ness. Which is why, when news came out of A Monster Calls, a book Ness wrote based on an idea from Siobhan Dowd, I jumped up and down in glee.

Though the word "monster" is used both in this new book and in the title of the third book in Chaos Walking (Monsters of Men), this new book is not cut out of the same cloth as the dystopian series. But it's still Ness's writing. And after reading this book, I think I've figured out why I love Ness's writing so much. To me, he speaks truth: quietly, simply, powerfully.

A Monster Calls is a tale of a young boy, Conor, coping with the reality of his mother's illness. One night, Conor is visited by a monster, a huge, centuries-old, yew tree-like creature. Intriguingly, Conor is not afraid of the monster, because it is not the monster that he was expecting. The monster tells Conor that he will be afraid before the end, for the monster will come back and tell him three stories. And after the third story, Conor will tell him a fourth story and it should be the truth. Otherwise, the monster would eat him alive.

Conor asked a logical question, which I suppose most of us, too, would ask in his place.

"You're going to tell me stories?...How is that a nightmare?"

To which the monster replies,

"Stories are the wildest things of all. Stories chase and bite and hunt."

Which is, I suppose, as close a manifesto as Ness will ever put in this book. Although he did write a magnificent introduction to the novel that says something about stories, too, particularly about the fact that the book was derived from notes left behind by Siobhan Dowd.

     I felt--and feel--as if I've been handed a baton, like a particularly fine writer has given me her story and said, "Go. Run with it. Make trouble." So that's what I tried to do...
     And now it's time to hand the baton on to you. Stories don't end with the writers, however many started the race. Here's what Siobhan and I came up with. So go. Run with it.
     Make trouble.

Maybe it's all this set-up in the beginning about stories. Maybe it was the topic itself--a dying mother. Maybe it was the character of Conor, who not only had to deal with his mother's cancer, but also the other travails and uncertainties of adolescence. Maybe it was Ness's writing, which is both stark and lyrical that it really brings you face to face with the grief. Whatever it was, the story did chase and bite and sort of make trouble for me because I ended up ugly-crying by the end and had to hide my sobs from my husband. And I really don't remember the last time a book made me ugly-cry or just plain cry.

The monster's stories aren't all that scary, truth to tell. But all of them are meant to show that things and people aren't always what they seem. And they're all for the benefit of Conor, who does have some difficult stuff to get through. But the nearer Conor approaches the time for telling his story, the more afraid he is. And when he does tell his story, you'll realize why he was afraid and it will all make sense.

I've always thought that Ness wrote beautifully. And, though sad, this is a beautiful story. And a beautiful book. I'm glad I got the print copy because it is filled with dark and wild illustrations befitting the story's underlying mood. The illustrations were care of Jim Kay, who has some of the illustrations on his website. Here's a sample below:

The monster (img src)

Ness did run away with Siobhan Dowd's ideas. Now, I've never read any of Dowd's books, but judging from the reverence with which people talk about her, I gather she must be a pretty great writer. And this means I have to find and read one of her books. Any suggestions?

In the meantime, I do suggest that you read A Monster Calls, especially if you like exceptionally well-written YA novels that have nothing to do with vampires, werewolves, or fairies, and everything to do with a realistic coming-of-age through the telescope of grief. It is awesome. Ness is awesome.

I await his next truth.