A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness is a wonderfully written story for teenagers and adults about the complexities of human emotions, and dealing with those feelings. Young Conor O'Mally, too old to be a kid and too young to be a man, is dealing with the emotions surrounding his mother's progressing illness.

A terrible nightmare, in which he is trying to pull his mother out of an abyss where a terrible monster is trying to pull her in, plagues him every night. His guilt and shame at finally letting her fall in his nightmare wakes up an interesting and unique friend in a yew tree that morphs into a humanoid shape and comes walking to tell Conor stories and help him deal with the emotions he is struggling to process.The story is sweet and sad, and a great book to read both because it is entertaining, and because it connects to readers by showing them how feeling contrasting emotions is a very human, and normal thing. Conor felt a lot of unneccessary guilt over his feelings about his mom's illness, but with the monster's help was able to learn to process them in a productive way. But how does the story ultimately end? Read the book and find out.