A Monster Calls

Patrick Ness 2011

Devastation Rating

Existential Dread
grief loss family literary fiction

Our Take

A boy's mother is dying and a yew tree monster comes at midnight to tell him three stories and ask for one truth in return. Ness understands that grief in children is not simpler than adult grief — it is exactly as complex and far less permitted. The truth Conor must speak will ruin you.

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