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• A Monster Calls was written by Patrick Ness and published in 2011.

• It is a fantasy story set in present-day Britain about a 13-year-old boy called Conor whose mother has a serious illness.

• Conor is visited by a monster who tells him three stories. These stories help Conor to understand the complicated feelings he has about his mother’s death.

• The book explores the themes of isolation, acceptance and the importance of storytelling.

Did you know?

The idea for A Monster Calls came from children's author, Siobhan Dowd, who died before she had chance to write the book. After her death, Dowd's publisher asked Ness to use his imagination to write the book.

Watch the video below to learn about the plot, characters and themes in A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.

Conor lives with his mother who is ill. One night, the yew tree near his house turns into a monster. It visits Conor and says that it will tell him three stories. In exchange, Conor must tell the story of his worst fear.

At school, Conor is being bullied by Harry and falls out with Lily, his best friend. Conor’s grandmother arrives to help look after him.

The monster tells Conor the first story. This story teaches Conor that most people aren’t just ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but somewhere in between.

Conor’s mother goes into hospital so Conor stays with his grandmother.

The monster tells Conor the second story. Conor agrees to help destroy one of the character’s homes but when the monster leaves he realises that he has destroyed his grandmother’s things instead.

Conor’s mother becomes seriously ill. Conor stops working at school and stops talking to people. He thinks that no one notices him.

The monster arrives at school and tells Conor the third story. As the monster speaks, Conor beats up Harry. The monster tells Conor that there are worse things than being invisible.

Everyone at school is now afraid of Conor, apart from Lily who reaches out to him.

Conor learns that the doctors can’t do anything else to help his mother. He is angry with the monster.

Conor tells the story of his worst fear. It is the nightmare in which he lets go of his mother’s hand and she falls over a cliff. The monster explains that Conor could have held onto his mother but that he let her go as he wanted the pain to be over. The monster explains that Conor is not a bad person and that feelings are complicated.

Conor holds his mother as she is dying, knowing that it is not his fault and that he can want her to live but also to want the pain to be over.

Activity

Conor O’Malley

Conor is 13 years old and lives with his mother who is seriously ill. He takes care of himself and his mother which makes him a young carer. He is finding it hard to cope. Conor often has the same nightmare in which his mother has fallen over a cliff. In the nightmare, he is holding her hand but he lets go and she falls.

Conor doesn’t have many friends and people at school find it hard to talk to him because of what is happening to his mother. This makes him feel invisible. He is also being bullied by a boy called Harry.

At first, Conor thinks that the monster has come to help his mother but eventually he realises that the monster’s purpose is to help him.

The monster

The monster is a giant creature in the shape of the yew tree next to Conor’s house. It tells Conor that it is very old and has had many different names. The monster always appears at the same time: 12.07.

The monster tells Conor three stories. Each story is meant to help Conor better understand what is happening to him. The monster encourages Conor to accept his feelings of fear, sadness, anger and aggression.

Activity

Themes are the main ideas that appear repeatedly in a novel. Some of the important themes in A Monster Calls are:

• Acceptance
• Storytelling
• Isolation

At the start of the book, Conor struggles to accept what is happening to his mother. He refuses to accept what is really happening, which makes him very angry.

The stories that the monster tells Conor help him to understand that things in life can sometimes be confusing. Conor learns that it's okay to feel the way he does and this allows him to accept the truth about his mother’s illness.

Each of the monster's stories help Conor to look at things in his life differently. At first Conor expects the stories to have a clearmoral or lesson to teach him, but the monster’s stories are more complicated and it takes Conor a while to realise this.

Conor is angry at his best friend Lily for telling people at school that his mother is ill because this makes people treat him differently. People at school find it hard to talk to him because they don’t know what to say. This makes Conor feel alone.

When Conor stops putting his hand up in class and stops talking to his teachers, he realises that no-one at school has spoken to him for days. This makes Conor feel like no-one notices him.

Activity

Writers choose words and phrases carefully when they write. Readers can look closely at texts to think about how and why the writer made these choices.

Third-person limited narrator

A Monster Calls is written with athird-person limited narrator. This means that the narrator’s point of view is limited to what Conor knows and sees.

Sometimes it isn’t clear whether things are really happening or are just happening in Conor’s head.

This happens a few times.

• When the monster first appears it is just after midnight and Conor has been having a nightmare so we don’t know if he’s really awake or not. The leaves on his bedroom floor in the morning suggest that the monster really was there.

• When the monster tells the second story it shows Conor the events and asks if he would like to help destroy the �貹�����Dz�’s house. Conor joins in but when the monster disappears, Conor realises that he has been destroying his grandmother’s things.

• When the monster tells the third story Conor thinks that he is watching the monster beating up Harry but then afterwards Conor’s teachers tell him that the other students saw him doing it.

Activity

Structure refers to how written text is organised – the way the story is ordered and shaped.

Four stories

A Monster Calls is structured around four stories. The monster tells the first three and then Conor must tell the fourth. Each story links to what is happening in Conor’s life and helps him to understand and accept it.

Click through the slideshow below to learn more about each story.

Repetition

The monster always arrives at 12:07. On the first night Conor meets it, the monster appears at seven minutes past midnight. The monster arrives at seven past midnight to tell the second story. For the third story, the monster arrives at seven minutes past midday

Through this repetition the reader comes to understand that 12:07 is an important time.

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is when the writer gives a hint about what might happen later in the story, often through a repeated symbol.

At the end of the book, when Conor is with his mother in the hospital, he notices that the time is getting closer to 12:07. Although the book ends before this, the reader can guess that 12:07 will be the time that Conor’s mother dies.

This foreshadowing shows the reader how well the monster has prepared Conor to face this event.

The context in which a novel was written can sometimes reveal more about its themes, message and meaning.

Yew trees

The monster is described as looking like a yew tree. Yew trees are often found growing in graveyards and are sometimes called "the tree of the dead".

Yew trees can be used to make medicine. This is referenced in the story:

• The healer wants to use the �貹�����Dz�’s yew tree to make medicine from in the second story.
• Conor’s mother’s doctors want her to try a medicine made from yew trees.

The Green Man

The monster also says it is very old and has had lots of names, including Herne the Hunter, Cernunnos and the Green Man.

In folklore these characters are linked to nature. The Green Man is usually shown with a face made of leaves and is associated with the circle of life – life, death and rebirth.

Did you know?

Yew trees can grow up to 20 metres tall and often live between 400 – 600 years. There are a yew trees in Britain which are thought to be over 1000 years old.