“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.”Oh! Where to start? Firstly I had never actually heard of this book until I went to the Hay on Wye Literature Festival where I had bought tickets to an event with Patrick Ness & David Almond. The event was wonderful and very entertaining and during it Patrick held up his new book. It was then that I noticed that this book is quite unique in its appearance. It is part novel and almost part graphic novel. Jim Kay's illustrations work in a way that they don't just accompany the text, they tell the story themselves in a completely different, but just as powerful way. The images can be subtle and creeping or over whelming and shocking, but they are able to make you feel that the book in your hands is something more than just paper and ink. It becomes more than just a book, more than just a container of words. It is a very physical thing, almost a piece of art. This novel actually made me feel bad for putting it on my bookshelf closed. I wanted to keep looking at the images or display them. It is a perfect balance between art and text.
I started reading this book whilst walking around the festival. (Read-Walking is a very difficult skill to achieve, but very worth it in the long run!) Considering that this book is indeed an intense emotional cheese grater I could think of better, less public places to become completely absorbed in it. Once I'd started there was no way I was going to put it down. The book follows the story of Conor a 13 year old boy who is watching his single mother go through chemotherapy. Because of her therapy she is often tired and weak and Conor is learning to take care of himself as a result. He is becoming more alienated at school, is being bullied by the teacher's pet and takes these incidents calmly. He is almost detached completely from the beatings, because it makes him feel a little less isolated, a little less invisible. This sets a dark mood over the entire book before the monster even shows up. You can feel Conor's repressed fear and rage in everything he says and does. His pain is almost tangible and you just want to help him, but you can't. No one can. The only person who can help Conor is himself. Himself and a rather large monster, The Green Man, in the shape of a yew tree. The monster comes walking and promises to tell Conor three stories from his past before Conor tells the monster one true story in response, his nightmare, his real worst fear, the one that makes this monster look tame in comparison.
The Monster's stories are one of my favourite parts of this book, I'm a complete geek for a story within a story. The stories read like particularly dark fairy tales, ones where everything is not always what it seems and the villains are not always the ones you would think. They do not always get punished as you would expect with a fairy tale. As the monster itself says “There is not always a good guy. Nor is there always a bad one. Most people are somewhere in between” The stories are thought provoking, shocking and managed to affect me on quite a deep emotional level. I loved the fact that the Monster's speech is written in italics and not in speech marks, like Conor is hearing it inside his own head. This was interesting to me, as if a Monster were to speak out loud, who would be the one to say what language it would be in.
This story is one of a young boy coming to terms with loss and grief. Some of the most painful parts are when Conor's grandmother and father come to him attempting to discuss plans for if his mother doesn't doesn't pull through and the chemotherapy is unsuccessful. Conor is in a position of being able to act quite adult at a time when he is being treated like a child. The Monster manages to give him ways to vent his frustration and inner rage and slowly come to terms with the fact that he is grieving and in terrible pain. One of the most painful aspects is how Conor is optimistic at a time when people close to him are telling him not to be. The only person who tells him to think positively is his weak mother.
This story is a painful, cathartic, often amusing roller coaster ride. The characters are all so flawed and believable. Despite the fact that one of the main characters is a Monster the book is so realistic, you go on this emotional journey with Conor, you feel everything he feels. When I finished this book I was so emotionally wrung out that I felt like I was the one facing the loss of a loved one. I closed it sobbing, whilst stood up in the middle of a queue waiting for a show and tried my best to stop crying. This book is one that haunts you and one that is hard to forget.
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