While I was in love with the redemptive story overall, here was also a contemporary tale about a teen boy facing numerous present day struggles that were neither magic-based, nor set in motion by the zombie apocalypse - very popular devices still to this day. In Seeing, Jake Sheppard (the protagonist), a simple boy (not The Chosen One) was missing his father who took off (never to be heard from again), was dealing with a bully, was struggling with his feelings for a girl, and who was about to be thrown another curve-ball in which someone he adored would die. The kid was being put through the wringer.
And despite how good I felt it all was, as I kept reviewing pages, I often asked myself the question: Who would want to read this? It didn't have that mystical flare of the supernatural (outside of the ending), and was just an everyday story about an everyday boy. I wondered if the book would ever find an audience and heavily considered jotting down a layout to begin a new novel from scratch.
Then I came across A Monster Calls.
I'd seen a list of annual Best Book winners for 2011 on Goodreads, and among them - among the YA section, specifically - was a black-and-white cover showing a tall creature approaching a house sitting back in a field with only one lit window. The image, in all its simplicity, was so enticing, I clicked to find out more. I read the summary, which began (as does the book): The monster arrived just after midnight. As they do. Terrific opening line.
I remember getting right on my Nook and downloading the sample. Needless to say, it wasn't long before I ordered the full book, and even ordered the hardback so as to see and appreciate the gorgeously macabre illustrations by artist Jim Kay.
The author of A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness, earned himself a fan for life in me with this book, which is darkly funny and devastatingly heartbreaking. A game-changer for sure in the world of YA.
It was this book - my now and all-time favorite book - that let me know it was OK to write touching stories that were more emotionally visceral and dependent on strong characters than they were anything else. A Monster Calls inspired me to work as hard as it would take to get my own novel a home with a publisher, and then a home in the hands of readers who would experience sadness in Jake's coming-of-age journey, but also internally cheer when they witnessed him finding that glimmer of hope.
A Monster Calls is a very special story to me, not only because of how it impacted me as a writer, and a reader, but also because of how lovely it is at its core, as well as the message it carries with it. It also doesn't try to have that happy ending. Despite the monster itself, it tries to be real.
And now, it's going to be a movie.
Initially, I was reluctant to judge the trailer against the book. It has the emotional feel of the book, the right..."flavor" shall we say, the right beats, but the movie also appears more "high fantasy" than the book is. The novel is very down-to-earth, with the exception of the vision-inducing stories the monster shares with Conor, but, at the same time, I understand that the movie is meant to be the visual experience. What is only alluded to or imagined or explained in Ness' writing, will play out in full detail for viewers to see - that's the takeaway difference. And I'm OK with that. My only hope is that this isn't some special effects spectacle that misses out on the heart of the story.
And the ending. The movie needs to keep the book's ending. I don't want the movie to elaborate, or extend beyond where the book goes in the last pages. It should end leaving viewers with the same feeling the readers get. The wind should be knocked out of you.
It does speaks volumes that Patrick Ness wrote the screenplay, so the film version of A Monster Calls would be exactly what he wants it to be. I trust in that.
A Monster Calls opens in October.
Next up, in Part Two of this blog series: Stephen King's Cell.
And the ending. The movie needs to keep the book's ending. I don't want the movie to elaborate, or extend beyond where the book goes in the last pages. It should end leaving viewers with the same feeling the readers get. The wind should be knocked out of you.
It does speaks volumes that Patrick Ness wrote the screenplay, so the film version of A Monster Calls would be exactly what he wants it to be. I trust in that.
A Monster Calls opens in October.
Next up, in Part Two of this blog series: Stephen King's Cell.
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