tell the monster a story about his own worst fear. Conor is so overwhelmed by grief and anger about his mum's illness that he can feel invisible. His grandmother tries to help, but sometimes the Monster's stories provoke him into furious sometimes violent Those quotes destroyed me and since they give away so much of the plot I decided to place them in a spoiler tag. Oh gosh, did they hurt. *sobs* I could relate so much to Conor’s mum and the horrible situation she had to face… To be forced to leave your own child… *cries again* Conor's father lives in America with his new wife and their baby daughter. Conor feels alienated by the way Conor's father's accent and pet names have changed since he moved to the States. When Conor asks to live with his father instead of his grandmother, Conor's father says there isn't enough room for him. Lily Andrews

Connor swallowed, still struggling. "And I started to think how much I wanted it to be over. How much I wanted just to stop having to think about it. How I couldn't stand the waiting anymore. I couldn't stand how alone it made me feel." I can distinctly recall watching a film recently and walking out completely dry-eyed and practically spitting with rage at the distinct feeling that grief was being commercialised on. That such an incredibly personal experience and the accompanying emotions could be held to ransom by an overwrought, histrionic movie.Basically a good kid, Conor acts out due to his tough situation and gets into trouble that he normally wouldn't take part in. He is very loving and helpful to his mother ("I wish you didn't have to be quite so good," she says), and the pain of his struggle is palpable, making it clear why he acts the way he does. Conor's mother is loving and forgiving of her son's misbehavior, and his friend Lily is a staunch and loyal friend.

Although this book did make me cry at it’s conclusion, I think in this case it was partly out of relief. The ideas expressed in this book, and very words uttered by the monster, allowed a weight to come sliding off my shoulders. I felt as if a personal truth had just been recognised and validated, in a very tender, respectful manner. Permission to accept that the thoughts I had pushed down as shameful and selfish, were just that: thoughts. Just one or two thoughts out of the millions I have had, but ones that I chose to hold on to and punish myself with for years. He beats up Harry, breaking several of his bones and putting him in hospital. When other students at his school become scared of him, Conor soon realises that: 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.In the dark of night, when the house is still, what fears creep into your heart? For Conor O'Malley, his nightmares take the shape of a very old and very dangerous monster who visits him every night at seven minutes past midnight. He's half-convinced that these must be dreams of his fevered mind. But how can they be, when the visits are so vivid and when he finds physical evidence of the monster's existence the next day? The school bully, who has been targeting Conor ever since Conor learned of his mother’s diagnosis. Harry is often flanked by his cronies, Anton and Sully. Harry frequently trips, punches, and taunts Conor. As… Conor O'Malley has just turned 13. His mother, Lizzie, is unwell and is trying to stay positive for Conor. The story begins when Conor wakes from a nightmare at 12:07am. The yew tree outside his bedroom has turned into a gigantic monster.

Conor is called out of school to see his mother in the hospital. She admits that the yew tree treatment isn't working. He says she lied about believing it would work. She apologizes and says she did want to believe the medicine would work, but she suspects he has always known she wasn't going to get better. At home, Conor confronts the yew tree in the graveyard and demands to know why it didn't heal her. The tree says it is there to heal Conor, not his mother. The tree makes Conor enter the space of his nightmare and admit the truth of how he could have held onto his mother's hands longer but needed to let her go so as to bring about an end, not just to her suffering but to his. The grief burns inside Conor. This stylish reworking of Beauty and the Beast unfolds in mythical Japan. Beautiful visual imagery, viscerally brutal action and desperate passions make this retelling feel fresh. One of the characters in the monster’s first tale. The young prince is the grandson of a king, and his stepmother is the evil queen. When the king passes away, the evil queen…Although I was reading this book through Connor's eyes, it was like reliving the tough year my family had to endure together while my mom fought the battle of her life. I've felt every emotion that Connor experienced. I hated being pitied. I was angry. At myself. At the world. At God. And when his mother spoke, it was my mother speaking to me through her words. A Monster Calls was a painful book. There were times when I even had to put this book down to compose myself. But reading it felt a lot like... closure. It reminded me that it was okay to be angry. It was okay to hurt, to be scared. It was okay to let go. I enjoyed this tale, though I have to admit I wasn’t as blown away as the masses of other reviewers seemed to be. My mother died of breast cancer two years ago at the age of 44. I lived the day when the doctors told my mom that she had breast cancer. I lived the day when I'd spend my 19th birthday visiting her on her hospital bed in the ICU while she was in a coma. I lived the day when I would see her take her last breath. I lived the day I let her go even if it was the hardest thing I ever had to do. Two years later, I wish I could tell you that it gets easier. I don't cry everyday anymore if that counts as getting easier. I'm not sure why I'm even saying all this, but I guess reading this book has made me feel a bit vulnerable at the moment. It's made me confront all kinds of emotions I've been trying to avoid since the day my mother passed. A monster calls: a novel" (first U.S. edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 29 July 2012. Lily and Conor have known each other since they were babies. Conor is angry with Lily at the start of the book because she told a few people about his mother’s illness. Conor thinks it’s her fault that everyone in school avoids him.