A Monster Calls

Author: Patrick Ness
Year: 2011
Publisher: Candlewick Press

Conor's been having nightmares. Well, more specifically, he's been having the same nightmare every night. One night, just after midnight, a monster shows up at Conor's house. It's not the monster from his nightmare but another one. And what it wants from Conor scares him even more than his nightmare.

I can't say a lot about this book without giving away too much of the story and spoiling it. I can just say that it is wonderful. I didn't know what to expect going into it. I knew that it had made a lot of blogger's lists of favorite books from last year and had been getting rave reviews. I also knew that the main character was dealing with his mother's cancer. Now that I've read it, I understand why there's such secrecy about the actual plot of the story and I'm keeping the secret going but I'm advising everybody to read it. If cancer's touched your life, I especially recommend this book to you.

I also have to say that the illustrations by Jim Kay are marvelous. This book is as beautiful to look at as it is to read.