The Docket: A Monster Calls

Some of us may still be working on our last book club pick of The Name of the Wind (and acceptably so—it is over 700 pages after all!), but we decided it’s time to move on and unveil our next pick for the month of March. As the third month of 2014 comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, we’ll be reading and discussing A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. Here’s the plot blurb from Goodreads:

The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.

But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...

This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth.

And since that was a little on the vague side, here’s the slightly more straightforward blurb from Amazon:

An unflinching, darkly funny, and deeply moving story of a boy, his seriously ill mother, and an unexpected monstrous visitor.

At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting-- he's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It's ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd-- whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself-- Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.

It’s a short read, clocking in at only 224 pages (and S may in fact have already finished reading it!). It looks to have some shiny gold medallions on the cover, though Amazon won’t let us zoom in and see what awards they are. At any rate, A is definitely excited to be reading her first book from this author, and, in a slight spoiler for our Reading Bingo recap for February coming soon to a screen near you, S has apparently MET him! More to come on that in the future, hopefully. Please join us in reading and chatting!

Will you read A Monster Calls with us this month? Have you read any of Patrick Ness’ other books? Let us know! We’d love to hear from you.