A Monster Calls - A Review By Laura

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  

Monsters Of Men - A Review By Laura

What is it about?
Three armies march on New Prentisstown, each one intent on destroying the others. The New World is at war. Todd and Viola are caught in the middle with no chance of escape.

As the battles commence, how can they hope to stop the fighting? And if war makes monsters of men, what terrible choices await?

Then a third voice breaks into the battle, one bent on revenge...

Who is it for?
Teenagers and young adults
 
Genre?
Science Fiction/ Dystopian
 
Is it any good?

I was hoping to give this book 5 out of 5 starts like I did with, book one The Knife of Never Letting Go and book two The Ask and the Answer, of this trilogy. I gave it four after trying to make my mind up about this book for a while. I'll be honest right now and tell you that I don't know what my feelings for this book were. I had a bit of a love hate relationship with it but it would not be fair to give any less than a four start rating based on the quality of everything this book has to offer.
I found that with the first two books of this trilogy I just could not put it down, and I didn't put it down that often, only to work or do other unavoidable things. However, with this book I felt the complete opposite. I was happy that I had work and the other unavoidable things in life as a excuse not to read this book but I couldn't tell you why;

• Did I just enjoy the trilogy so much that I didn't want it to end and get myself into a little bit of a book slump
• Did I expect more from the final book than it gave me
• Did I feel like it was going on a little too much and should have been put into just two books

I couldn't tell you. Before I began this book I thought I would have it read in just under a week, it took me a month and I am shocked at myself for that.

I know you are probably wondering how since I am talking about this book the way I am I gave it four stars anyway well here are my reasons;

1. The characters - I found myself falling in love with them all throughout this book, even the ones that are meant to play the bad guys, I felt sorry for them all at certain stages.
2. The Storyline - Sometimes when you read a series of books you begin to feel as though the author is just dragging the story out so that they can make more books and money from it however I found that these books did not at any point get repetitive or slip away from the storyline that Patrick Ness was creating.
3. The suspense - Although I felt as though the book started slow I still found myself wondering what was going to happen. This book lacked chapters and jumped from one characters point of view to another characters point of view and for me this just added to the suspense. At certain times one of the characters would do something and then we would be left seeing how the other characters react to this, in other situations I would be left for pages up on pages just wondering what was going to happen while Patrick Ness focused on another part of the story in a different part of the world. I know I said I couldn't make myself read this book but I am starting to think that is just because I didn't want the series to end.
4. Not being able to even guess what is going to happen - Usually when progressing through a book you find that you can guess what the ending is going to be... With this book I really couldn't and even now that I have finished it I still don't really know what is happening to the characters. Patrick Ness has left the book open to a certain extent where it gives us the opportunity to end the book ourselves how we want it to end. He allows us to determine the fate of the characters.
5. The World - The world created in this book is by far one of my favourite bookish worlds... The animals talk, you have fish that eat you, hear each others every thought and can control each other through thought alone... It is amazing.

Was the ending Satisfactory?
I always dread finishing trilogys, In some cases I have been let down by endings, even on some stand alones but this just finishes perfectly in my opinion
 
Rating?
4
 
Would I recommend the book?
I would recommend this book, the trilogy as a whole is really impressive and in my top 5 favourite trilogys... probably number 3!

Read it if you like:
Cassandra Clare, Stephanie Meyer and Rick Yancey

The Ask And The Answer - A Review By Laura

What Is It About?
The Ask And The Answer is the second book in the Walking Chaos Trilogy by Patrick Ness, it is a tense shocking and deeply moving novel of resistance under the most extreme pressure. 
   
Fleeing before a relentless army, Todd has carried a desperately wounded Viola right into the hands of their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss. Immediately separated from Viola and imprisoned, Todd is forced to learn the ways of the Mayor's new order. But what secrets are hiding just outside of town? And where is Viola? Is she even still alive? And who are the mysterious Answer? And then, one day, the bombs begin to explode...

Who Is It For?
I would say this book was aimed at teenages and young adults.

Genre?
Science Fiction/Dystopian

Is It Any Good?    
Patrick Ness makes it impossible for me to love this book anymore than I do. Before I began reading it I was thinking to myself how the majority of book series, from my experience, always get worse as the books go on. The plot starts to lose direction and in some cases I feel as though the authors only carry on writing extra books for the money rather than because they feel the story needs more. In the case of the chaos walking trilogy I feel as though Patrick Ness has used books one and two as a build up for the final book.

First of all the title, He is so clever with naming his books, at first I wondered where the title could have possibly came from and what it could possibly mean but while reading the book it becomes clear, both sides of the war, The Answer (Mostly the women of the town) and The Ask (Major Prentiss and mostly the men from Todds old town).

It is told from both Todd and Violas point of view. Viola is with The Answer and Todd is with The Ask. Ness has chose to write the book jumping from Todd narrating one chapter to Viola narrating the next, it works so well, he has even wrote it in a way that allows us to hear Todds Voice and Violas and be able to tell them apart without having to refer to the '[Viola]' at the beginning of the chapter. Unlike the first book Todd and Viola are separated for most of the time and although this should make you see them as individuals, which you do, you also see how strong their connection is and how they are doing the things they do for each other. At certain times in the book they think that the other is betraying them and this made me want to shout at them through the pages. Just like the first book I was left in suspense at the end of the majority of the chapters, I have had this book in my hands at every given opportunity, I could have happily stayed in bed one day and have this book finished, unfortunately I had work and other commitments that prevented that happening.

Not once could I even guess where the story was going, there was certain points in the book where I thought I knew what was going to happen but within a page that theory would vanish.
It's made me need to read the next book like now!
It is a kind of love story from the boys perspective, to me that is rare.

Throughout the book we meet a number of new characters which Ness has created for us to fall in love with and even know I am sitting here wondering if they are okay, whats happened to them? where are they? I just need to keep reading... The next book is already open and waiting for me. That is all I have to say on this book, I am getting too excited just reviewing this book that I cannot wait another second to start the final book of the series. You really need to read it, believe me it is highly unlikely that you will not like it.

Was the ending satisfactory?

Yes, please give me the other book now!

Would I recommend this book? 

I would, I would recommend any of Ness's books he is such a talented writer with an amazing imagination.

Read it if you like

Cassandra Clare/ Stephanie Meyer

The Knife Of Never Letting Go - A Review By Laura

This book is about a boy who is about to reach manhood in a strange town where no women exist and all of the men can hear each others thoughts. The boy who plays the main character is the last in his town to reach manhood and something is about to kick off when he does, the book focuses on the journey that unravels as the boy tries to escape the men of his town.

----------------------------------------------------------- 

When I began reading it my thoughts were; 

• Its going to have a similar plot to every other book of this genre

• Its going to be a love story

• I can't read this the writing is irritating me (I'll explain a bit late on)

• I think this is going to be my second DNF book

The book proved me wrong on all my thoughts.

This book is completely different than any other of this genre I have read.

Recently it has started to annoy me how every book I read of this genre focuses on the love between the two main characters it just becomes so predictable, well so I thought. It hints at the fact that there is something between the two main characters however Patrick Ness focuses on the plot of the story instead, leaving this in the background... I love him for this.

The book is narrated by the main character and in order to make us connect and understand Todd Hewitt more Patrick Ness wrote as though Todd was talking... Todd can't read or write therefore Ness decided to spell certain words wrong e.g Stayshun for Station, direkshun for direction and twixt for between, I still haven't worked out where he got that last one from. During the first few chapters of this book I just couldn't get used to this. I was ready to put the book down but then the plot started to kick in and the more I read the more it became normal and was no longer a problem.

Due to mostly the spelling I was ready to put this book down but the way every chapter ended making me want to read on, just to see what was going to happen, I ended up finishing the book and I still don't know whats going on... I could have had this book read in a day or two but knew that I had to wait till Christmas day to get the next book of the trilogy, I have five days to wait and it is already killing me, I am glad I dragged it out a little longer, I don't think I would have coped.

 -----------------------------------------------------------