What is it about?
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.
Who is it for?
This book does have the age recommendation of 12 to 17
year olds but I believe the themes we deal with whilst reading this book
also makes it suitable for older readers.
Genre?
Fantasy/ Horror/ Contemporary fiction
Is it any good?
Well taking that it has been made into a film and Liam Neeson is voicing the monster I think it is fair to say that it is good, emotional and heart wrenching but good.
I read this Patrick Ness book after reading the Chaos Walking trilogy and The Rest Of Us Just Live Here,
as you can probably tell I am a big Patrick Ness fan and this book
didn't fail me, it just helped in justifying why I was a fan of his in
the first place.
This
book pulled at my heart strings, I have a terminally ill father and
when reading this I realised that although I do get on with it and put
on a brave face I do sometimes lose a bit of my composure just like the
main character Conor in this book and his grandmother too. I think it would be highly unlikely that if you read this you will not relate to the characters, unfortunately cancer is evil and touches almost everyones life in one way or another whether it be personally, family or even friends. I am not the best at writing reviews as soon as I have finished reading it and sometimes I forget altogether until I am a few books further down the line and I begin forgetting the smaller details of past books, in this case it has been a while but the majority of the story has stayed with me and I believe it always will.
This
book focuses on Conors nightmares, which I found such a clever move by
Ness, obviously dealing with such issues is like living in a waken
nightmare anyway so I feel as though Ness did this purposely giving the
story a deeper meaning and more depth. The book only consists of 224
pages with a largish
font, it can be read in one sitting. Sometimes when you can read a book
in the one sitting it makes it just that little bit more great and
special. Jen makes fun of the fact that I take a little longer than her
to read a book, I don't have all the extra time she does, and I read
this in less than 24 hours... That must count for something, not only did the size of the book help me achieving this but the sheer talent of Ness's writing made me unable to put it down, I had no choice but to read it in one or maybe two sittings.
Was the ending satisfactory?
The rest of the book leads to the ending of this story nicely, it all comes together and the monsters presence in Conors life becomes clear. If you love a good cry then you will definitely not be disappointed with this ending, it is absolutely devastatingly good.
Would I recommend the book?
I would recommend this book however I would say if you are dealing with cancer in your own personal life and aren't so much a very strong person like me who can push their feelings to one side you may want to give this a miss.
Read it if you like:
Me Before You By Jojo Moyes
Now Is Good By Jenny Downham
The Fault In Our Stars By John Green
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