Walker Books, £12.99 Order for £11.69 (free p&p)from the Independent Bookshop: 08430 600 030

A Monster Calls, By Patrick Ness, illustrated by Jim Kay

Nightmarish tale goes like a dream

When novelist Siobhan Dowd died in 2007, she left four finished books and an idea for a fifth. Rather than let a good idea go to waste, Walker Books commissioned Patrick Ness to write it. Ness, like Dowd, is a brilliant and acclaimed creator of books for older children and young adults, but the two novelists' voices, their concerns, their styles, are quite different. Many people – myself included – thought this a peculiar piece of casting.

Well, shows how much I know. A Monster Calls takes Dowd's preliminary idea, and draws out of that bud a tale that has nothing of the hybrid about it. Quite the contrary: the story, the writing and Jim Kay's pictures are a single stunning entity, organic and vital.

Conor's mother is ill in hospital. His father lives in America, so Conor is left in the care of his brisk grandmother. Conor is having nightmares – one in particular, shudderingly awful, that recurs. And then comes the visit. His visitor is a monstrous creature that walks at night, tells three tales, and demands the most difficult thing of all in exchange. It demands that Conor face up to his feelings; that he tell the Truth.

Conor's monster is a yew tree, a huge, gnarled, creaking, elemental thing, as old as the Earth. It's kin to the traditional "green man", and the book does have some roots in ancient folklore. But for me it also had echoes of another giant visitor, the Iron Man of Ted Hughes's book. A Monster Calls has the same scale – the monstrous, noble grandeur of the creature invading Conor's little life, urgent and detailed. But there's real fear, too, and real anger. Kay's illustrations, dark and terrible, follow the author's lead in refusing to flinch from portraying that fear and anger with ferocious power.

Received wisdom dictates that books published for children need endings that are, if not exactly happy, then at least hopeful. A happy ending would have been a betrayal of the kind of bracingly honest book this is, but hope can be hard to come by in such a story. Here the desperate honesty and refusal to compromise do allow for a sort of brutal clarity to emerge, and from that finally a glimpse of something like hope. Brave and beautiful, full of compassion, A Monster Calls fuses the painful and insightful, the simple and profound. The result trembles with life.

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Career Services

Day In a Page

Can we pull the plug on the plug?

Can we pull the plug on the plug?

Wireless power is beginning to surge its way into homes, businesses and garages
The 10 Best Lecture Series

The 10 Best Lecture Series

From Intelligence Squared - possibly the world's premier debating forum - to the ICA Talks
Still making a big noise: A season of Michael Frayn plays is set to reaffirm the brilliance of his work

Michael Frayn: Still making a big noise

A season of Frayn's plays is set to reaffirm the brilliance of his work
'You could have a job like mine': How successful alumni can inspire pupils

How successful alumni can inspire pupils

Hilary Wilce sees an innovative scheme in action at a London comprehensive
The tuition paradox: You pay more money, you get less choice

The tuition paradox

You pay more money, you get less choice
The rivals: Canberra's political hate story

The rivals: Canberra's political hate story

Six years ago, Kevin Rudd was ousted as Australian PM by former ally Julia Gillard. Is he about to get his revenge?
Menswear finds its swagger to escape role as poor relation of British fashion

Menswear finds its swagger...

... and escapes role as poor relation of British fashion
'There was someone who needed it...' 60 lives, 30 kidneys, all linked in longest donor chain

60 lives, 30 kidneys, all linked in longest donor chain

Organ donation to stranger starts an amazing series of events across 11 US states
The ad that only plays to women: the future of marketing or useless gimmick?

The ad that only plays to women

The future of marketing or useless gimmick?
Sam Wallace: Chelsea's class of 2012 fail to make the grade

Sam Wallace

Chelsea's class of 2012 fail to make the grade
Lewis Moody: My five ways England can bring down the red curtain

Lewis Moody column

My five ways England can bring down the red curtain
Picture preview: Charline von Heyl, Tate Liverpool

Charline von Heyl, Tate Liverpool

Picture preview
Slow progress in Christchurch one year after quake

Christchurch a year on

Residents mark the first anniversary of the earthquake
Niceness rocks! Ballads take centre stage at the Brits

Niceness rocks!

Ballads take centre stage at the Brit Awards
Robert Fisk: 'If only hague and clinton would listen to yusuf islam'

Robert Fisk

'If only Hague and Clinton would listen to Yusuf Islam'