Patrick Ness is a British-American author, journalist and lecturer who is best known for his young adult novels. These include “More Than This,” “The Rest Of Us Just Live Here,” the best-selling Chaos Walking trilogy and “A Monster Calls.” “A Monster Calls” is about a young boy who struggles to cope with his mother’s terminal cancer and is often visited in the middle of the night by a monster who tells stories. The movie adaptation of “A Monster Calls” stars Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones and Lewis MacDougall and is due to be released this Friday January 6, 2017.

According to Wikipedia, “A Monster Calls” is a novel for children based on an idea by award winning author Siobhan Dowd who died from cancer before she could write it herself. It is illustrated by Jim Kay and is set in modern day England where thirteen year old Conor O’Malley wakes up from the same nightmare he has been having for the last few months. At seven minutes past midnight a voice calls him from outside his window which overlooks an old church and a graveyard sheltered by a yew tree. This monster is a mass of branches and leaves formed from the yew tree and claims to be a version of the green man. It warns Conor that it will tell him three true stories after which Conor must tell a story of his own and if it is not true the monster will eat him. The monster continues to visit him and in between these stories it is revealed that Conor’s mother is struggling with cancer and that he is lonely and alone with no support from his distant father or his pushy and cold grandmother. On top of that he is also being bullied at school and as the story continues his mother’s condition worsens and his relationship with the monster has unforeseen consequences. It is a haunting and dark novel of mischief, loss and monsters, both real and imagined.