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A review by jenbsbooks
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
5.0
I remember I watched the movie years ago. Honestly ... I don't remember much about it, the story, just that I was impressed with it. Enough so that I bought the audiobook on Audible during a sale (it's an Audible exclusive), yet it still stayed on my TBR. Until this year, and "spooky season" when I purposely going after dark/tense reads. I borrowed a kindle copy from the library. I think I'll be buying a physical copy to add to my personal library shelves.
There is something unique about this ... from the first line "The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do." Our MC is Conner, a young boy dealing with a lot. His mother has been sick with cancer. Father is off in America with his new family (this takes place in England). Grandmother is strict. The kids at school are hard to deal with. And then ... there's a monster(tree). A monster who tells stories.
It's all very lyrical and descriptive. I went with the audio and loved it, but now looking at the Kindle copy I see there are illustrations too, and I feel like I missed out a little, even though I have some images in the movie in my head even though it's been years since I saw it.
I'm a Table of Contents snob, and sometimes when chronological chapters aren't listed ... as is the case here, it's just the chapter headers, no numbers. But because all the headers are unique, that makes shifting between formats pretty easy still. I definitely want the headers included in the TOC. I love looking over a TOC, seeing headers, and remembering what was in that chapter.
While this is a YA book (the MC is 13-years old) - it spans ages. I could see this being a very interesting bookclub selection. Lots to talk about and discuss. No questions included in the copy, but I found some online ... https://www.candlewick.com/book_files/0763655597.bdg.1.pdf
There is something unique about this ... from the first line "The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do." Our MC is Conner, a young boy dealing with a lot. His mother has been sick with cancer. Father is off in America with his new family (this takes place in England). Grandmother is strict. The kids at school are hard to deal with. And then ... there's a monster(tree). A monster who tells stories.
It's all very lyrical and descriptive. I went with the audio and loved it, but now looking at the Kindle copy I see there are illustrations too, and I feel like I missed out a little, even though I have some images in the movie in my head even though it's been years since I saw it.
I'm a Table of Contents snob, and sometimes when chronological chapters aren't listed ... as is the case here, it's just the chapter headers, no numbers. But because all the headers are unique, that makes shifting between formats pretty easy still. I definitely want the headers included in the TOC. I love looking over a TOC, seeing headers, and remembering what was in that chapter.
While this is a YA book (the MC is 13-years old) - it spans ages. I could see this being a very interesting bookclub selection. Lots to talk about and discuss. No questions included in the copy, but I found some online ... https://www.candlewick.com/book_files/0763655597.bdg.1.pdf