A Monster Calls
Patrick Ness (from an idea by Siobhan Dowd) (2011)
“A boy whose mother is dying summons a monster made of yew — the tree that grows in graveyards and produces the chemical used in chemotherapy. The monster does not come to heal. It comes to make Conor tell the truth.”
At a Glance
Thirteen-year-old Conor O'Malley is dealing with his mother's terminal cancer when a yew tree monster visits him at 12:07 a.m. The monster tells Conor three stories that systematically dismantle fairy-tale logic — no clear heroes, no clean morals — then demands Conor tell a fourth: the truth about his recurring nightmare. Conor must finally admit that he wants his mother's suffering to end, even if that means she dies. The monster catches him as he lets go.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
Won the Carnegie Medal in 2012 — the first book to win both the Carnegie and the Kate Greenaway Medal (for Kay's illustrations) simultaneously, the only time this has happened in the awards' combined 150+ year history. Established a new category of children's literature: the 'illustrated literary novel' that is neither picture book nor chapter book but a genuine hybrid form. Became the standard text for teaching grief and loss in schools and therapeutic settings.
Diction Profile
Accessible contemporary prose with precisely controlled shifts into archaic fairy-tale register for the monster's stories
Moderate and precise. Ness avoids extended metaphor in favor of symbol (the yew tree, the nightmare, the clock at 12:07). When figurative language appears, it tends toward the visceral and physical rather than the abstract