A Monster Calls opens Goodreads in a new tab

My thoughts

4/5stars Stories are wild creatures, the monster said. When you let them loose, who knows what havoc they might wreak? Yet another book that has been doing rounds on booktube since forever but somehow I completely missed it and the hype surrounding it. But now that I did read it, GOD did i cry like a baby. Yes, yet another episode of fictional characters making me bawl my eyes out. Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both. This is story about grief, about coping and about the after effects of impending death and terminal illness. But the twist is that the protagonist is not the one dying but someone closely related to them. This is probably the best book about this topic that I have read in a long long time. Because humans are complicated beasts, the monster said. How can a queen be both a good witch and a bad witch? How can a prince be a murderer and a saviour? How can an apothecary be evil-tempered but right-thinking? How can a parson be wrong-thinking but good-hearted? How can invisible men make themselves more lonely by being seen? "I don't know," Connor shrugged, exhausted. "Your stories never made any sense to me." The answer is that it does not matter what you think, the monster said, because your mind will contradict itself a hundred times each day. You wanted her to go at the same time you were desperate for me to save her. Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both. This is a book that will make you remember all of your saddest moments and make you feel grief like you haven't felt since ages. It reaches right into the deepest corners of your heart and brings out your darkest secrets. The protagonist is so simple, yet so relatable in every which way possible. If you're looking for a good cry, this is your perfect book. You be as angry as you need to be,” she said. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Not your grandma, not your dad, no one. And if you need to break things, then by God, you break them good and hard. CWs for the book: bullying, intense isolation and loneliness, death of a loved one, terminal illness