A Monster Calls is a novel published in 2011 that was written by Patrick Ness that was inspired by the writing of Siobhan Dowd. A powerful, moving novel that tells the story of a young boy struggling with grief, A Monster Calls is a fantastic novel for everyone.
The protagonist is a boy named Conor O’Malley: his mother had terminal cancer and his father had left them to marry Stephanie, a woman who beguiled him so deeply that he left for America (expectedly creating a child in the process: human behavior is quite despicable - Conor’s father, instead of paying attention to his existing son, who is tormented by sadness and denial of mortality and of giving support to his first wife, acts out of selfishness. However, the joke’s on him: his end would come in due time too). The monster mentioned in the title of the book came to see Conor right after midnight: Conor is revealed to have been struggling with nightmares whose explicit nature are not initially given, seeing that all that is mentioned of his dreams is a feeling of loss and powerlessness. Conor, hearing his voice being called at 12:07 AM, looks out the window and sees a large yew tree that was nearby. While the yew tree was perfectly normal most of the time, Conor saw it come to life, forming itself into a humanoid shape that was gigantic in size. The creature (I won’t be calling it a monster in this summary: “monster” has a negative connotation that is fit to describe many humans for their terrible deeds) tells Conor that he has come for him, and Conor, unafraid, notes that he wasn’t the monster that he feared. The creature, enraged, breaks down his house and grabs him. The next morning, Conor awoke to find everything the way it was. He ate his breakfast and noted that the ground of his room was covered with yew leaves. His mother told him that his grandmother would be coming to make his meals, making him quite angry and frustrated: he felt like they were perfectly fine on their own, not-mentioning that he viewed his grandmother negatively, as she was overly formal and strict, making her a bit of a martinet. When he went to school, he was bullied by a popular kid named Harry and his two friends Anton and Sully - they drew blood. It is then revealed that Harry is extremely narcissistic: this clearly demonstrates the unfairness and stupidity of humanity and the world, as despite being a bully, he was very smart and athletic. He didn't bully Conor too much in the past, but when he learned that his mother was dying of cancer, he began targeting him for harassment. While he was being bullied, a former friend named Lily came to his defense and tried to tell Harry and his subordinates off by pushing Sully into the grass. As expected, a teacher, Miss Kwan, caught her doing so and demanded an explanation: she told her that Harry and the others were making fun of Conor’s mother. When Miss Kwan asked Conor of the validity of Lily’s claim, he denied it, as he knew that Harry would continue tormenting him regardless. At the end of the school day, Lily asked for an apology from Conor, seeing that she got detention all week for standing up for him. Conor says that he owes her nothing, as she was the one who revealed to her friends (who then, staying true to human nature and slander, told the entire school) that his mother had cancer. Conor storms off, as her doing so made his life even worse. That night, the creature came once again and asked Conor to come out, as he said he could easily smash the house in. He tells Conor that he has called for its presence, not vice-versa: the creature reveals that it has existed for many years and has influenced many peoples of many cultures. The creature then tells Conor to take him seriously (Conor noted that he looked like a tree), as he rarely uproots himself from the earth to interact with people: he does so only in very serious situations. The creature informs Conor that he’ll be visiting him again soon, and that he’ll tell him three stories from the past in which he was directly involved in - after doing so, he expects Conor to tell him his story (the truth). Conor, after hearing the last request, is terrified and asks the creature what it’ll do if he refuses: the creature smiles at him wickedly and tells him that if that occurs, he’ll devour him. Conor awoke in his bed and found the red yew tree berries on the floor (they’re also poisonous).
Conor’s grandmother eventually arrived at the house, and told him that he will probably come to live with her, as his mother is getting progressively worse. Conor, hearing this, denies the inevitable and informs her that he’ll never live with her. The creature appeared that night and tells Conor that he himself asked for its presence due to believing that it could solve his problems for him. The creature then tells Conor the first story: many years ago, the town Conor lived in was a kingdom that was headed by a wise king. He had four sons, and due to the fighting that frequently occurred, they were sent into battle: each met his respective end, leaving the king with only his grandson for a potential heir. The king’s wife died of heartbreak after the deaths of her children (which is somewhat nonsensical - all people are destined to die soon; however, some die sooner than others), causing the king to marry a princess from a nearby kingdom. They seemed to get along, and the king’s grandson matured until he was almost of age to take the throne (the age for that is eighteen). The king soon became sick, and rumors occurred which alleged that the queen was a witch who was poisoning him. The king objected to all of them, and he died: when he did so, his son was seventeen, one year below the legal age to reign the kingdom. The king’s wife became the regent and ruled stably and with good sense. While she was leading the kingdom, the king’s grandson fell in love with a farmer’s daughter. When the time came for the queen to relinquish her position, she was unwilling, for she liked the power associated with the occupation of a ruler: she then thought that it would be a good idea for the prince to marry her, seeing that she was still young herself, as well as allowing her to continue to reign. The prince, hearing of this, refused to do so, believing it to be abhorrent, and ran away with the farmer’s daughter, vowing to come back when he’s eighteen to become the king. During the night, he rested under a yew tree (the creature’s dormant form) with the farmer’s daughter, and gave in with her to their primal instincts (demonstrating that humans, in many regards, are just as foolish as other animals). When the prince awoke from his slumber, he found that his love was stabbed to death, and that he was covered in blood. Believing that the queen was trying to frame him for a murder he didn't commit, he requested the creature to help him (the creature reports that in the past, the barrier between mundaneness and things which may be described as magical was much easier to cross). The creature, hearing his words, decided to exact justice. The prince rallied up the villagers and stormed the castle of the queen, leveling it. They then dragged her outside to burn her at the stake. However, the creature intervened, saving the queen from being put to death: he then took her to a village by the sea that was far away in order to allow her to live in peace for the rest of her life. The creature reveals that what he did could be justified, seeing that good and evil are not black and white concepts in reality: he reveals that the prince had murdered the farmer’s daughter. That is, although he loved her and was torn to slay her, he believed that the queen was too powerful to simply overthrow: he needed to incense the citizens of the kingdom to such a degree that they’ll help him gain the throne. Indeed, after committing the murder, he deceived himself and utilized the concept of doublethink, convincing himself that the queen had murdered his love, and that he was innocent. The prince told the creature that he had done the murder for the common good: the death of his love was needed for the stability of the kingdom. Hence, the creature came to life to enact justice, not for the prince, but for the queen: although she was probably a witch and could’ve committed evils in the future, she was still technically innocent at that point of time and had committed no crimes, thereby rendering her undeserving of being brutally put to death (it can take more than half an hour to die from burning). The prince, after toppling the queen, became the king and enjoyed a long, successful reign and was beloved by the people. Conor remarks that the story was a cheat, seeing the details, and the creature tells him that many real stories may sound stupid or incredulous, seeing the potential absence of good options. Conor awoke to find a sapling that was one foot tall in his room: he proceeded to saw it off. When he went back to school, he continued to refuse to apologize to Lily, and was physically assaulted by Harry and his cronies: it’s then revealed that he didn't tell people of the bullying because he was somewhat masochistic, as he viewed himself as deserving of punishment for wishing for the pain he was experiencing to be over (on a certain level he wanted his mother to finally die as her death was inevitable at this point, not-mentioning that she was suffering severely). Miss Kwan caught Harry and the others bullying Conor, and she tells him that she knows how people like Harry operate: even if a bully is talented and capable, they’re still a bully. She then states that he might end up in a position of power one day (Prime Minister, to be exact), clearly illustrating that in the world, those who hold great power are frequently terrible individuals, as one needs to be willing to manipulate and exploit others to climb the hierarchy of prestige (while politics is one of the worst examples of how greedy, selfish, and stupid individuals can gain power, there are numerous others, seeing Voltaire’s quote that the comfort of the few rich depends on an abundant supply of the poor). Miss Kwan tells Conor that she sympathizes with his plight, making him loathe himself, as he feels he deserves no sympathy.
Conor’s mother went to the hospital due to her ever-increasing pain, and Conor moved in with his grandmother. Her house was full of antique items (that were possibly very valuable) and was extremely organized. Furthermore, the only place with internet service was her office, which she didn't allow Conor to enter. As expected, Conor was very unhappy with this, though he accepted on a certain level that he was going to live there for a potentially long time, seeing his mother’s condition. Conor’s father came to visit him, and it becomes apparent that he’s selfish: he doesn’t care about Conor, and only came to stave off his conscience, as he would stay only briefly - he didn't care that his first wife was dying, or that his son was suffering from intense sorrow. The creature came to see Conor a few days after he moved in with his grandmother, and it promises to tell him the second story, and informs him that it’s about a selfish male who is punished for his short-sightedness and greed: Conor, hearing this, thinks of his father. The second tale takes place one-hundred-and-fifty-years ago: the Industrial Revolution transformed the landscape into cities and towns. The story centers around the Apothecary (“apothecary” is an old-fashioned name for “chemist”) who focused heavily on ancient medicine, using herbs and natural substances to heal ailments. As the factories and cities grew, the Apothecary had more and more trouble finding the materials he needed to make his medicines, which soured his attitude. To be accurate, the Apothecary was already a bitter person: “He was greedy and charged too much for his cures, often taking more than the patient could afford to pay. Nevertheless, he was surprised at how unloved he was by the villagers, thinking they should treat him with far more respect. And because his attitude was poor, their attitude toward him was also poor, until, as time went on, his patients began seeking other, more modern remedies from other, more modern healers. Which only, of course, made the Apothecary even more bitter.” (104). A key factor that worsened the Apothecary’s situation was a neighboring parson who preached against the old ways and his methods of treatment, as he genuinely believed that moving towards modern treatments of ailments was a better option for most people. The parson had two daughters whom he loved dearly, and near his church grew a yew tree (the creature). The creature then reveals that the yew tree is the most powerful of all the healing trees, as “It lives for thousands of years. Its berries, its bark, its leaves, its sap, its pulp, its wood, they all thrum and burn and twist with life. It can cure almost any ailment man suffers from, mixed and treated by the right apothecary.” (105). Thus, the Apothecary desired it greatly but was repeatedly turned down by the parson, seeing how the yew tree was large in stature, protecting the church from potentially destructive weather. Later, the parson’s two daughters became ill from an epidemic that was ravaging the people of the town, and no treatment appeared to work. The parson, desperate, went to the Apothecary, and collapsed on his knees, telling the Apothecary that he would do whatever he wished, so long as he would save his two daughters. The Apothecary, astounded that the parson would abandon everything he believed in, asked him if he meant it, and he confirmed it. The Apothecary then told him that he wouldn’t help him, as he didn't deserve it: when times were easy, the parson nearly financially ruined him, but when tribulations came, his belief and faith in the things he espoused were revealed to have been hollow. That night, his two daughters died, and the creature arose to avenge their deaths by destroying the house of the parson. Conor, seeing this, is shocked, retorting that the Apothecary should be the one who is punished, seeing his nastiness. The creature responded that while the Apothecary “was greedy and rude and bitter … he was still a healer. The parson, though, what was he? He was nothing. Belief is half of all healing. Belief in the cure, belief in the future that waits. And here was a man who lived on belief, but who sacrificed it at the first challenge, right when he needed it most. He believed selfishly and fearfully. And it took the lives of his daughters.” (109). Conor watches a vision of the creature destroying the house, and the creature asks Conor to take command, as he promises that committing things to destruction is quite satisfying. Conor loses himself in his rage, telling the creature to destroy everything. When he comes to, he finds that almost every item in his grandmother’s house was ruined: he had done it all, though he could scarcely believe that he was capable of such things. Upon seeing what he had done, Conor’s grandmother was emotionally devastated, though she was still able to function: she went into her room and wept profusely.
To Conor’s surprise, he wasn’t punished for the destruction he wrought: he was only talked to sternly. He visits his mother in the hospital, and she tells him that she is undertaking a radical treatment: said treatment is made of yew trees. When the creature came during the evening, Conor asked whether she would be healed by the treatment, and the creature tells him that if she can be healed, the yew tree will do it. The creature then tells Conor that it’ll tell him the third story soon, and shows him what he expects from Conor. That is, he momentarily brings Conor into the nightmares he frequently has. Conor, though unnerved, demands the creature to heal his mother: the creature, before leaving, responds by telling him that he already knows what will happen to her, though he had trouble accepting its implications. When Conor went back to school, Harry told him that he figured out the best method to hurt him: he offered a handshake to Conor and walked away, saying that he no longer saw him, as he’s invisible. Conor hears the creature in his ear, and it tells him the third tale: a man was invisible not due to his actually possessing that property, but because others got used to ignoring him. One day, he decided that he wanted to be visible, and he did so by calling a creature and asking for its aid. Conor, after hearing the story, allowed his rage to manifest against Harry: in a fit of wrath, he used his brute strength (augmented by the creature) to put Harry in the hospital (which he completely deserved), as he broke his arm, nose, and teeth. Harry’s parents, upon hearing the news, viewed their son as a victim and Conor as the aggressor, and threatened to press charges, but were dissuaded upon learning from Miss Kwan that if they were to do so, universities would learn of Harry’s bullying record, clearly demonstrating a clear facet of human nature: not only do people deny the obvious when they have an emotional stake in something (in this case, Harry’s parents ignoring his horrible behavior while overexaggerating his injuries), but they also don’t care for morality, seeing that most people refrain from committing crimes only due to the threat of punishment, not out of an intrinsic sense of responsibility. Conor heard from the headmistress that he should be immediately expelled; when he did, he felt a massive sense of relief, as he felt like he was going to be punished (again showing the unfairness of the world: those unlucky enough to be born into Conor’s position frequently feel much hatred against themselves for little reason, though their lives were largely beyond their control - Conor, after all, couldn't've prevented his mother from developing cancer, his father from acting as a lecherous prick, or Harry from frequently tormenting him). The headmistress then said that if she were to expel Conor, she wouldn’t be fit to be called a teacher, as she knew that Conor was in a very tough situation that was stressing him emotionally and physically. Furthermore, it is revealed that after Conor beat up Harry, the creature told him before disappearing that there are things much worse than being invisible; indeed, people began paying attention to him, but only of the negative kind, as they tried to avoid aggravating him (ex. by maintaining adequate physical distance). However, there was a glimmer of hope: Lily wrote him a note that said that she saw him, and that she was extremely sorry for spilling the news of his mother having cancer. Conor was then called out of school to go to the hospital: his mother informed him that she was dying, and that the treatment made from the yew tree wasn’t working. Conor, hearing his own mother pronounce her eventual death, has trouble accepting it, and is enraged, as he barks at her that she was lying to him the entire time. She doesn’t deny this, as she said that she wanted to believe that things could get better. She then passes out due to the painkillers, and Conor tells his grandmother to drive him to the home he shared with his mother: once there, he kicks the yew tree repeatedly, ordering it to wake up. The creature eventually emerges, and Conor tells it that it was useless, seeing that it was incapable of healing his mother. The creature corrects him: he never promised to heal his mother, seeing how the yew tree would’ve helped her recover if there was a chance of recovery. The creature then reveals that it has come not to heal his mother, but him, as he was emotionally scarred and in denial of reality. It pronounces that it’s time for the fourth tale, and takes him into his nightmare.
In the nightmare, Conor found himself in immense darkness, one that had existed since his mother was sick. His mother was standing over an impossibly tall cliff, and Conor yelled at her to back away from the edge. However, she was unable to (she was physically weak), and the monster that Conor really dreaded appeared: it possessed the appearance of two gigantic hands that was connected to an even larger section that was obscured from view. The two hands seized Conor’s mother and began taking her down into the abyss: however, Conor lunged forward and grabbed his mother’s hands. “This was the nightmare. This was the nightmare that woke him up screaming every night. This was it happening, right now, right here. He was on the cliff edge, bracing himself, holding on to his mother’s hands with all his strength, trying to keep her from being pulled down into the blackness, pulled down by the creature below the cliff. Whom he could see all of now. The real monster, the one he was properly afraid of, the one he’d expected to see when the yew tree first showed up, the real, nightmare monster, formed of cloud and ash and dark flames, but with real muscle, real strength, real red eyes that glared back at him and flashing teeth that would eat his mother alive. I’ve seen worse, Conor had told the yew tree that first night. And here was the worse thing.” (179). The creature from the abyss violently pulled Conor’s mother down, but Conor counteracted with all his strength, trying to continue to grasp on to his mother. Despite his best efforts, his mother was taken by the creature and was entirely removed from his grasp. He recollected that when his hands lost those of his mother, he would usually wake up: however, he currently didn't, as he was wide awake. The creature told Conor to speak the truth: he intentionally let her go, as he knew that resistance was futile and wanted the pain, the ordeal, to be over. Conor vehemently denied it, saying that she just happened to fall: the creature tells him that if he doesn’t accept the truth and come to terms with his life, he’ll be stuck in the darkness forever (which can be read as him being unable to conquer his grief and living in an emotional limbo). The creature encouraged Conor to speak the truth, and Conor said that if he was to do so, he would die. The creature corrected his statement, telling him that he’ll perish if he refuses to. Conor speaks the truth, yelling that he wanted the pain to be over and that he had let her go. After doing so, he fell unconscious. Upon awakening, he admits to the monster that he knew his mother was going to die for a long time, and that he deceived himself in order to believe that she was going to recover. The creature comforts him, telling him “You were merely wishing for the end of pain … Your own pain. An end to how it isolated you. It is the most human wish of all … your mind will contradict itself a hundred times each day. You wanted her to go at the same time you were desperate for me to save her. Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those things necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.” (191). Conor asked the creature how to prevent that from happening, and the creature tells him that an excellent antidote for things like denial and cognitive dissonance is to simply speak the truth. The creature then gives him an excellent piece of advice: what’s important in life is one’s actions, not one's thoughts. “You do not write your life with words … You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.” (192). Conor asked if telling the truth was all that was needed to come to terms with reality, and the creature raised its eyebrows, informing him that just moments ago he would’ve died rather than speak it. Conor says that that was because what he thought was amoral and selfish, and the creature tells him that he can’t blame himself for that: “It [the thought] was not wrong … It was only a thought, one of a million. It was not an action.” (192). Conor feels the nightmare and the feeling of helplessness lift from his chest, departing for good, and he feels himself falling asleep. However, he doesn’t wish to, as he wants to see his mother. The creature reassures him that he will see her once again, and that he will be by his side: “It will be the final steps of my walking.” (193). Conor, before falling unconscious, asks the creature why it comes at 12:07 AM: while the creature doesn’t respond, Conor knows the reason. That is, the creature comes at that time because that is when Conor’s mother will die. Conor is soon awoken by his grandmother (he fell asleep under the yew tree for hours): she had been searching for him for hours, and was frantic for him to come to the hospital, as his mother was in poor condition. On the drive there, Conor’s grandmother acknowledges that while they don’t share much in common, what they do share in common is his mother, and that that is a good place to start. When they reached the hospital, Conor saw that it was 11:46 PM. He made his way towards his mother, and the creature told him to tell the truth to her: if he does, he’ll be able to overcome any obstacle that he will face in the future, including his grief. Conor obeys and takes command of his life, telling his mother that he doesn’t want her to leave. The book ends with the following sentences: “He leaned forward onto her bed and put his arm around her. Holding her. He knew it would come, and soon, maybe even this 12:07. The moment she would slip from his grasp, no matter how tightly he held on. But not this moment, the monster whispered, still close. Not just yet. Conor held tightly onto his mother. And by doing so, he could finally let her go.” (205).
Personal thoughts:
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness is a powerful, moving, and innovative look at subjects like grief, tragedy, the unfairness of the world, human behavior, and story-telling. Ness’s writing is terse and direct, made all the stronger by the impressive visuals that are present throughout the book (they were drawn by Jim Kay). The characters of the book are very realistic, seen in their flaws - I am utterly incensed at Conor’s father due to his selfishness and baseness. Unfortunately, people like him are quite common, though it’s a relief that one doesn’t have to interact or associate with garbage like him, seen in his utter lack of loyalty, empathy, and kindness (to reiterate, he rarely visited his terminally ill former spouse, neglected Conor while claiming to care about him, could see only from his own point of view, and never once apologized for his behavior - in one particularly telling instance, he told Conor he felt sorry for him, and Conor asked him if he was being serious). The three tales told by the creature and the fourth told by Conor are imaginative and relevant, seeing that no individual can be purely categorized as bad or good, as people possess aspects from both sides, thereby making them belong to the gray zone. The lessons present in this book are to be appreciated: aside from the main one of accepting the mortality of living organisms, some of the other ones that are relevant include being consistent to a certain degree regarding one’s actions, refraining from casting judgments too quickly, and the importance of forgiveness. I highly recommend A Monster Calls to anyone interested in moving storytelling, realistic characters, poignant writing, enrapturing visuals, and applicable life lessons.
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