Review Summaries

• It has strong support as a story about grief, with its warmth inside the darkness singled out for praise.

Reviews

• もう一度読み返したくなる本

  少しダークですが、思わず主人公に感情移入してしまうようなお話でした。涙を誘う、何度も読み返したくなる本だと思います。買って良かったです。

• 深い感動

  映画が感動的だったので原作を読みましたが、こちらの方がさらにグッと感動しました。お母さんの手を放す悪夢の意味がわかりました。

• 心に残る一冊

  本書の存在を知ったのは、一冊のヤングアダルト向けの本が、絵と文の部門で別々に2つの賞をとったというニュースを見たときだった。最初は、モノクロのイラストがただ怖そうだったのと、今流行のファンタジー物には少々食傷気味だったんので、あまり興味がなかったのだけれども、他の方の書いたレビューを見てただのファンタジーとは違うと分かったので、購入した。 本書は、癌で早くに亡くなったSiobhanという少女が生前に温めていた物語をPatrick Nessという若いアーティストが文章を書き、同じく若いJim Kayがイラストを描いて出来上がったという、なにやらアイルランド系の雰囲気漂う、イギリスの本だ。 本書に現れるモンスターは、Yew即ち、イチイの木のモンスターだ。20年ぶりくらいに辞書で調べてみたら、イチイ木は常緑樹で、生命や長寿を意味する縁起の良い木なんだそうだ。反面、英文学をかじったことのある私には、どこをどう間違えたのか、イチイといえば、教会の庭の裏の墓地の入口みたいなところに立ってて、なにやら死と隣り合わせな感じのする存在だというイメージが刷り込まれている。そして本書も死ぬことと生きることとの境目を描いているという意味では、あながち私の先入観も的外れではないのかもしれない。 内容についてはあまり多くを語りたくない。私自身、結末を知って読んだせいか、最後は少し間延びした感がした。だから、物語の筋について繰り返し触れないで置こうとおもう。でも読めば納得の一冊ではあると思う。 星を1つ減らしたのは、本書の内容のせいではない。「ハードカバー」を購入したところが、平製本で弱冠硬い紙を表紙にしているのはまだ許せるとして、接着剤が良くなくて、読んでる間にページがぱらぱらと落ちてきて、崩壊しそうになったからだ。大切なメッセージを含んだ、イラストも素晴らしい、良い本だから、どうしても手許に残したいと思うのだが、この製本の悪さには閉口した。それでも本書を読んだことには後悔は全くないが、ほんの少し残念だった。

• 1ページ目からひきこまれます。

  プロローグから鳥肌が立つような筆致で、とてもひきこまれました。 映画では読み取りきれなかった登場人物の内面が丁寧に描かれています。

• 心優しい少年が強さも自らの成長で手に入れます

  映画が余りにも良かったので、原作を読みたくなりました。本当に美しい英語でした。何回も読みたくなります。映画の方がエピソードが多いのは、映画の脚本も作家が担当して主人公の背景を加筆していて、成功しています。 この物語をあんな美しい映像に出来たのは、この作品をスタッフが愛していたからでしょう。 物語は大人向けかもしれません。深い話です。心優しい少年が苦しんで強さを手に入れます。そこに友情は介入せず、自ら成長します。素晴らしい話です。

• こんなに響くなんて思いもしなかった

  英語もそんなに難しくないです。 たんたんと描いているようで、 自分の不安に向き合っていく様子が響きました。 ただ、キンドルで購入したら、うっかり挿絵がないＶｅｒ．を買ってしまい、あわてました。

• モンスターは自分自身

  13才のコナー君とその母親がガンで闘病生活を送っている話です。 その年代の子どもは普通でさえ不安定な年頃なのに、親が病気、しかもガンで日に日に弱っていく上に、離婚した父親は新しい家族を気にしてばかり。変わり者のお祖母ちゃんはお母さんの看病で忙しく、友達にも距離を置かれ、コナー君の心の中に、闇(モンスター)が広がっていきます。 児童書にありがちな設定(親が重い病気)で、最初はまたか、と思いましたが、決して押し付けがましくなく、話が淡々と進んでいきます。瑞々しい文章で、英文もシンプルです。

• オーディオブックも素晴らしい

  オーディオブックを読むのはハリー・ポッターのルシウス・マルフォイ役、ジェイソン・アイザックス。丁寧に一人一人を描き出し、実に見事である。フィクションのオーディオブックはなかなか好みに合致するものに会うのは難しいが、（テンポが遅すぎる、棒読みに聞こえる、声が好みでない・・・好みなのでどうしようもない面もあるが）これは今まで聞いたトップクラスの朗読の中でも、引き込む力といい、込められた感情といい、またとない傑作を読むのにふさわしい人選であったと確信する。 特典として付いている作者へのインタビューも興味深い。

• Muy buena edición impresa

  Valió la pena la espera, es de muy buena calidad la Last y la impresión

• A sad tale expertly told.

  Read A Monster Calls as part of a unit for my Year 9 English Class. Despite being targeted at young adults, it was composed with beauty and nuance. Be aware it is a tearjerker, especially for those who have lost someone. A moving tribute to the original storyteller.

• Amazing Story Born from an Incredible Idea

  This book has been at the back of my mind for a really long time and for some reason I really wanted to read this one on paper and it has been wallowing somewhere on my amazon account for about a year and then lo-and-behold September comes around and I go berserk and buy a ton of books and included in that ton of books is this one. Can I just say it has an amazing cover? Especially the inside cover which was so gorgeous and a wonderful surprise. I don't know where I heard of this book but I feel like around the time its movie must have come out or been announced, must have been the time that this book had a resurgence and that's when I heard about it because I was truly surprised to learn that this book came out in 2011, not in 2017/16 like I would have guessed. I also feel like I might have come across these books by way of its illustrator Jim Kay who is now famous for illustrating the Harry Potter books, but yeah, though it is a nice coincidence the fact that I am continually shocked by the fact that I am actually familiar with the work of this book's illustrator keeps coming as a shock to me. Also, this book has some amazing illustrations that really fit the theme and texture of the work. The paper is the kind that has a glint on it as you can see from the above image. It is the kind of paper that is very heavy and the reason why this book is heavier than books with three times the number of pages. This book is very captivating and the way it has been packaged really helps set the atmosphere. I really had no idea what this book was about as I started it since while actually buying it I didn't even think to process the decision made by an earlier me, I just bought it and I found myself mildly disappointed that this was the book that ended up being delivered first because I was really excited by one of my other purchases. So with all that in mind I started reading this book. This book starts when Conor is thirteen and his mother is dying and the monster comes walking. The monster will tell Conor three stories and when he is done Conor will tell him the fourth - his truth. This book is like really well-written despite the fact that the words get so much help from the illustrations and the feel of the book, the words actually don't need any help because these words are particularly strong and the story they tell is a story made to be told. I loved the fact that this book is allergic to proper nouns as much as I am and has only some 6-7 named characters and the ones named are not even the very important ones and I just loved the fact because I am pretty sure this is something really rare to find, a story allergic to names. The way this story unfolds is very revealing because as you read further the more the story moulds your understanding of it, till the point that you become the story and everything written starts feeling like it is already written on your brain. This is especially true when it comes to the third story because of the way that story is depicted, as the story starts to become one with reality there is this almost surreal feeling of you becoming one with the book. This book has quite a lot of those feelings, there is the scene where the monster manifests in Conor's Grandma's sitting room. The way that scene is described is so vivid that it felt like I was watching it instead of reading it and in that moment I really wanted to watch a movie of this book, only to later realise that my want was already reality. All the stories that make up this story are beyond incredible they are deep at the surface, like the simplicity of the words are the ones that lend the complexity to the stories. This book does deal with grief something that is very hard to deal with in life, let alone in a book when the one on the verge of loss is a boy about to lose the only parent he lives with because as difficult as grief is to deal with, its also different at different times, with different people and in different circumstances something that I have really learnt these past few months. It is kind of amazing the idea that sparked this story about a monster helping a boy overcome his grief because who would have ever thought of that but I'm truly glad someone did.

• WOW

  I would give this book endless stars if I only could. so beautiful yet so heart wrecking nothing else can be said to describe this wonder

• The Paper Critic - Review

  This was a hard book to find, and when I did, I was glad throughout the entire book. This is probably one of my fastest reads. The hardest part of finding this book in particular is I wanted the book not the e-book. Because someone along the lines I read a review of the e-book which explained that none of the illustrations were part of the e-book. That was a huge downside to me, I wanted the full effect of the novel and what Patrick was trying to convey. On that note, I want to express my deepest admiration to Jim Kay for the illustrations in this book. They were dark, gritty, and very surreal. I could almost stare at the artwork forever and try to guess what Jim was trying to convey through the artwork, it was just fabulous. I don't know if Patrick Ness found this artist, or if the publisher did, either way I would be honored and humbled to have him work on anything I was part of. The monster and how Conor interacted with the monster was great, and perfectly captured in every still. I almost want to look up Jim further and see the rest of his works. Conor is a teen or a young teen in that matter, and I never understood just what plagued his mother. Anyways, she was undergoing treatment of some type that forced Conor to grow up fast. He is independent, knows how to think and live for himself and his mother. To me that's a feat, and furthermore, when his mother's illness gets worse, he tries to make everything work. He believes that everything will be all right in the end. What I enjoyed the most about the book, was Conor's growth and the dialogue with the tree/monster. The Monster tells these tales that each have a meaning, and almost make you think. Its not just a right or wrong choice, they all involve some type of moral dilemma and in the end it's Conor who doesn't understand the decision, or the outcome of the tale. In the dialogue with the Monster, we begin to realize just how series the situation is, and how far his mother's illness is weighing on Conor's mind. Conor's family comes to his aid, his grandmother which we understand he hates, and wants almost nothing to do with. His father flies in from the US, and that only makes matters worse. Through the involvement of his family, we understand that he doesn't want to accept that his mother is worst than what he thought, and what's happening to her is beyond his control. Yet there's something deeper, something that plagues Conor so bad, that during a talk with the Monster, he destroys his grandmothers living room full of antiques. Patrick Ness does a great job at capturing the guilt and emotional trauma of living with a truth we never thought we wished. That's sometimes we create a far worst Monster, than if we admit the truth to ourselves. It's this part that most of us don't see past, and Patrick captures that torture and pain so well. I love this book thoroughly, and would re-read this over and over. Its a great tale to tell your children, because sometimes something will be out of their control, and they will want to admit something life changing or just emotionally devastating, and that you will be there to help. It's just a work of art. Furthermore, I have been a huge fan of Patrick Ness, and when I finished The Chaos Walking series, I was looking for some of his other books and I stumbled upon this from an older book club reading I never got around to reading. I was shocked that the emotion conveyed in this book beat that of the other series, and I found at the end I wanted that to be part of The Chaos Walking series as well. I missed the work Patrick is able to do and I thoroughly look forward to reading more.

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