Books can change lives. They offer adventures, an escape from the world we live in, but also an understanding about the nature of humanity. From the hundreds of books I have read, A Monster Calls, written by Patrick Ness and illustrated by Jim Kay, has impacted my view of human nature most. It showed me the complexity behind every person and the thoughts that accompany inevitable death. The simplicity of the words combined with the jagged illustrations exude raw emotions. My experience with this book began as I scanned the aisles for a quick fantasy novel that I could read in my free time.
A black and white illustration of a strange, tree-like monster, approaching a lonely house in the fields caught my eye. The monster seemed to move farther away the longer I stared at it, and with the first line, “The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do,” I was transfixed.
The nonchalant description of a monster caught me off guard. In all the books I have read, monsters were portrayed as malformed creatures, the epitome of malevolence, but here, the monster is a mentor, a companion, a friend.
Nightmares continuously haunt Connor, a small, tired boy, but one night, he is faced with a real monster outside his window at 12:07. However, he is not afraid because his reality is much worse as he watches his mother die slowly from cancer. His forthright nature as a fifth grader and innocence of his descriptions paint the emotions with every color even if the illustrations are black and white.
As a young boy, he still needs someone he can speak to, but he has no one but his mother. Thus, the yew tree monster teaches him the lesson of letting go while helping him cope. A creature, older than humankind, imparts experiences that only someone alive for so long could attain.
To make Connor face his feelings about his mother, the monster makes Connor promise to tell his own story after it shows him three. On the first night, it brings Connor to a kingdom with a Queen for a witch. She intends to marry the prince, who has a lover, to keep her power, but the two run away. While sleeping under a yew tree, the girl dies, and the prince blames the witch. However, this is not the typical fairytale, for the prince was the one who killed his own lover, but he was so convinced by his own lies to attain his power that he led the town to kill the Queen.
The audience and Connor both realize that there is no person who is entirely evil or good. I did not know the extent of the complexity of human nature until the simple fairytale displayed the truth behind what we see. Each story taught us the traits of grey areas of human nature from betrayal to hypocrisy to loneliness. Connor’s invisibility at school is a characteristic that everyone can relate to because even when surrounded by crowds, there is still a feeling of solitude.
However, when Connor is brought to the spotlight, he sees that attention also has consequences, making me consider the thoughts and live of well-known individuals, who will never have the obscurity of an average person.
But the lesson that changed my life was Connor’s own story. He faces his nightmare to admit that he wanted to let go of his mother’s hand in her struggle against cancer. He was tired of the constant reminder of her impending death. He was tired of the perpetual fear of being left alone. He was tired of holding on, so he let go. He loved his mother and held on tightly to her, but after the monster’s visit he finally acknowledged that letting her go would be the ultimate portrayal of his love.
The stories that the monster imparted changed my view of how we express our love and extended my perspective of human nature. The layers that make up each of us, our beliefs, our prejudices, our love, are endless. Wrapped up in his mother’s inevitable death for half his life, Connor could not bear to let his mother go but he could also no longer endure the perpetual agony of hanging on. A Monster Calls taught me that I could take a millennium to understand one person.
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