A Monster Calls: A Snapshot

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

"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." (from Goodreads)

 
The subject: the struggles of a boy whose mother has cancer. Don't kid yourself — while there's a magical realism element at play here, like any terminal illness story it's a tough, depressing read. I found this book emotionally draining, so be prepared for that. (And yes, it even made me cry a little — which is saying something, because I don't cry very often at books.)

I liked that Connor wasn't ashamed of loving his mom and being close to her. He was willing to put her needs above some of his own (like his need for friendship and social interaction). It was really sweet to see their connection and the kind of pure parent-child love that exists.
 
The setting: I think it's kept purposely vague, to make the story more generalizable...but I'd say it's somewhere in England where they have yew trees.

Shutter speed: fairly slow, but evenly paced. There isn't much exciting plot going on here, and the content is inarguably weighty, but the simple writing style helps keep the reader from getting bogged down.

What's in the background? Amazing illustrations that really made this book special. I wasn't so enthralled with the story at certain points, but I would always be looking forward to the illustrations, because they're just fantastic. Grayscale and done in an impressionistic sort of style, they manage to be very atmospheric, striking and textured.

Zoom in on: the sub-plot about bullying. Frankly, I really didn't "get" the character of Harry and his mindset, but I thought the discussion surrounding Conor's desire to be punished and fear of being alone and invisible was very interesting. Also, I appreciated the acknowledgment of Conor's guilt over the warring desires within him; I thought this was insightful and true, and something many people experience.

An interesting sidenote: there's a fair bit of psychology in here, and something resembling cognitive retraining at the end. The monster distinguishes between the unimportance of thoughts and the importance of actions, and the idea of conflicting thoughts (which might be seen as cognitive dissonance) is also broached.

Anything out of focus? Not really. A Monster Calls accomplishes what it seems to set out to do: tell the story of a parent with cancer in a fresh way. We never find out how the magic works, but that's not really the point; the magic is more of a vehicle for Connor's psychological and emotional development. The writing style is simple, yes, but very effective and powerful. I think Patrick Ness chooses his words quite carefully, and a simple writing style really suits the subject matter.

Ready? Say... "Tissue?"

Click! 5 shooting stars. A Monster Calls is one of those books that has a "timeless classic" sort of feel to it. I can imagine this might be a book a teacher could read to their class, or a parent and child could read together. However, even though it's illustrated, it deals with some deep, heavy themes and concepts in a serious tone — giving them the respect and space they deserve — so younger kids might not fully understand or appreciate it. 

Guest Post: How to get Parents off Our Backs (in novels)

I'm delighted to welcome Christina Lee to the blog today for a Psychtember guest post!

 

First, a bit about her:  

Christina Lee has been a social worker and a special education teacher (also, a dinosaur excavator, a Lego contractor, and a Thomas the Train conductor), and finally realized that she could turn her love of words into her DREAM of writing. 
She writes freelance and Young Adult fiction and blogs at www.write-brained.com . She also own a hand-stamped jewelry business called Tags-n-Stones, which requires her to stamp lots of letter and words onto pieces of silver. Notice a pattern here?

And now her guest post! 

In my former life, I spent more than a decade as a child and family therapist in various school, home and treatment center settings. The majority of those sessions were spent teaching parents to utilize new skills/ideas to help their child function at home and school. 

Of course, there are meds that help tremendously with certain diagnoses (AHDH or depression, for example) and the child can learn coping and social skills in therapy. But by and large, the parents hold the bulk of responsibility for helping that child along. And usually by the time they come see a therapist, they are tired, sad, frustrated and at their wits end. 

Totally understandable. Somewhere along the line the family hit a roadblock and needed a tune up or a major overhaul to help regain their quality of life. 

The two biggest pot holes I’d seen with parents in therapy were: (1) not being on the same page (or backing each other up, for that matter), and (2) being inconsistent and unrealistic with rewards and consequences. Yes, I’m boiling it down to those two points to keep this post short and sweet. :)

So, as writers of Middle Grade and Young Adult novels, we know that in order for our protagonist  to experience some of the adventures they do in our books, we need to get the parents out of the picture.  

On the whole, recent books I’ve read had divorced, absentee parents or large parental issues going on (alcoholism, abuse, etc.). This obviously helps the protagonist when it comes to sneaking out of the house, coming home late and not having to answer to anyone.

But we don’t always need those larger issues to help our main character out.  A perfectly healthy and intact family has normal, everyday issues to help us writers do our job.

If you need to get your MG or YA parents “out of the picture”, have them disagree on curfew times or after-school activities. 

Or, have the MC pit one parent’s word against the other.  Guilt works wonders for all parents (me included). :)

Lastly, a parent could be inconsistent with rules in the house. For example, grounding them for an unrealistic two months in a fit of anger, and then letting them off one week (or day) later. 

Make sense? Good luck and happy writing!

Thanks very much, Christina, for these great suggestions! 

Readers — do you think the larger issues for getting parents out of the picture are overused? Would you like to see more healthy, functional families in YA?