#12 in Young adult
A Monster Calls
- 224
- Pages
- about 4 h
- Reading time
- Carnegie Medal
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Our view
A boy whose mother is ill is visited at night by a monster that tells him stories, and through them the book approaches grief with rare honesty. It is as beautiful as it is painful, and some readers finish it in tears. Short, illustrated by Jim Kay and written for young adults, it is still a heavy read at any age because of its subject. For anyone ready to face loss on the page.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
A Monster Calls is a Low fantasy novel written for young adults by Patrick Ness, adapted from an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, illustrated by Jim Kay and published by Walker Books in 2011. Set in present-day England, it features a boy who struggles to cope with the consequences of his mother's illness. He is repeatedly visited in the middle of the night by a monster who tells stories. Dowd was terminally ill with cancer when she came up with the idea for the story, and died before she could write it.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.7 across 719 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 83% of the weight and the score stays at 8.6 — the Young adult average of 7.8 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 9.3 | 33 | 5% |
| Hardcover | 8.7 | 686 | 95% |
Frequently asked
What age is A Monster Calls for?
A Monster Calls sits on the Young adult shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 13 and up. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 224 pages — shorter than 98% of the ranked books in Young adult.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Young adult — with scores between 8.4 and 8.6, closest to this book.
