A Monster Calls

Title: Ness, Patrick.  A Monster Calls.  Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 2011.  Print.

Overview: Conor awakes one night to find a monster outside his window.  The monster has a strange request: it wants to tell Conor three stories in exchange for a fourth told by Conor himself.  But the fourth story must contain "the truth", something Conor isn't ready to admit to himself much less to this monster.

Critical Analysis: From the synopsis on the back of the book the book seems like a straightforward suspense.  There's a monster, though not the one Conor dreams about on a nightly basis.  So, of course, this will be about scary monsters and filled with horror and suspense, right?  Wrong.  This story isn't a horror novel, but more one of growing and learning  Through the stories the monster tells Conor learns more about his world and about himself as his own world crumbles and his mother battles with cancer.  It's just as much about family as it is about the monster that came calling.

Book Recommendations With Similar Themes:

1. The Giver by Lois Lowry.  Jonas lives in a world where students are given a life assignment once they come of age.  Jonas' life assignment is to become the receiver of memories.  He begins a relationship with The Giver, the town's holder of memories who transfers them to Jonas showing Jonas things he never knew existed.  Through these memories and his time with The Giver he realizes that his perfect world has many dark secrets.