In order to showcase the books that I own, I have created a little segment whereupon I will go through each book one letter of the alphabet at a time.

A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness

Conor has the same dream every night, ever since his mother first fell ill, ever since she started the treatments that don’t quite seem to be working. But tonight is different. Tonight, when he wakes, there’s a visitor at his window. It’s ancient, elemental, a force of nature. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth.

This book is a masterpiece. It’s so beautifully lyrical and reads almost as poetry on the page. There was a real honesty about the way Conor was illustrated; nothing fake, nothing dramatised, just something simple and pure.

When reading this, I felt the distinct air of a dark fairytale in a real life setting. Please be aware that by my saying that, I am by no means putting a dampener on the subject and am taking it any less seriously. Illness is a dark subject in itself nobody can deny, but by adding a sense of fantasy to the story it becomes a lot more relatable to people who have never had to deal with anything of this nature. It adds a sense of familiarity.