A review by efsimpkin
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I picked this up on a whim as it’s only 4 hours long on audio. Jason Isaacs does a fantastic job of narrating what can only be described as a deeply sad and moving book, making me cry a few times. It’s wonderful that considering what the book is about, you barely hear the words about it - it’s always described via other means, or circumvented, which I think is very clever. I think I would need to reread this to get the full meaning of it all. I think the invisibility thing passed me over, but I understood the nightmare, in the end. The ending was abrupt and I was expecting a resolution but I’m glad we didn’t get it. I loved, on a meta level, the author’s note about the story. I found that very touching.
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