Book Club: A Monster Calls

A mini-review of A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (inspired by Siobhan Dowd) can be found included here. It may be the best book I’ve read this year, so if you haven’t read it… go do that. These questions include spoilers.

A Monster Calls Discussion Starters

1. Conor’s nightmare is something that he vows never to share with anyone else, yet the monster encourages him to speak the truth despite how difficult it is. Should Conor have kept his nightmare a secret, or should he have shared it? If you think he ought to share it, to whom should he have been more truthful? Is it enough for him to have admitted the truth to himself, or should he have shared it with a third party?
2. Conor suffers incredible guilt due to his nightmare and as a result goes out of his way to look for punishments (he welcomes Harry’s bullying, is relieved when he thinks he is being expelled, etc.). However, his circumstances prevent people from punishing him. Should Conor be held accountable for his actions despite his mother’s sickness? Is the lack of punishment, in a way, a punishment?
3. Discuss Conor’s relationship with Lily. Whose fault is it that they fell out? Do you think that their friendship can survive the events of the novel? Why did Lily tell their classmates about Conor’s mom? Why didn’t Conor want them to know? Why did Conor allow Lily to be punished for sticking up for him? Is Conor’s refusal to let his friends close another part of his self-punishment?
4. The novel is called A Monster Calls, but in the book itself the character is referred to as the monster. Discuss this change. Does the title refer to the yew tree monster? What other monsters are present in the novel that the title could refer to? Is it important that the yew tree monster says that Conor called it? If that is true, then what monster called, and whom did it call?
5. Discuss Conor’s relationship with his father. Does his father’s absence and distance (via second family, Americanness) change Conor’s relationship with his mother? How might things be different if Conor’s father were dead rather than present but emotionally unavailable?
6. Discuss Conor’s relationship with his grandmother. Does she, as Conor believes, treat Conor like a failed employee? What do you think about the grandmother’s insistence that Conor’s parents are doing him a disservice by giving him false hope? Do you think that Conor’s mother is enough of a common denominator for Conor and his grandmother to get along? How would things be different if she were a more traditional grandmother?
7. Conor is the only one who sees the monster, even when it appears in front of other people. Do you think that the monster is literally there, or is it a figment of Conor’s imagination? If it is literally there, why was it invisible to Conor’s classmates, and why could Conor feel its destruction in his own hands? Consider the monster’s dialogue, which is placed in italics rather than in quotation marks.
8. What did you think of the monster’s first story? Did you believe that the king’s second wife was the murderer? Did you, like Conor, misinterpret the monster’s words to confirm that bias? What do you think about the way that the story turned out, with the murderer successfully ruling for many years to come? Did the regent’s potential evil excuse the prince’s actions?
   1. The monster says, “There is not always a good guy. Nor is there always a bad one. Most people are somewhere in between… Many things that are true feel like a cheat” (64). Do you agree or disagree? What other truths are in the novel? Do they feel like cheats?
9. What did you think of the monster’s second story? Should the monster have come walking for the apothecary or for the parson? Is it important that Conor never really seems to understand this story?
10. What did you think of the monster’s third story? Why do you think that this story was less narrative than the others? Why do you think that the monster left out any specifics about the invisible man? Why does Conor feel invisible?
11. Discuss the three stories that the monster tells. Why was each one important to Conor? Why was each one told when it was (consider that Conor had to wait for the second story until he was “ready”)? What do you think of the escalating violence (no damage, damage to grandmother’s room, damage to Harry)?
12. Conor eventually admits that he wants it to be finished, and that he is tired of waiting for his mother to die because he knows it is going to happen and the waiting is exhausting. Were you surprised by this? What does this say about Conor as a person, if anything? Why was it important for Conor to admit this truth to himself?
13. Did you think that the yew tree was going to heal Conor’s mother? Do you think that it succeeded in healing Conor?
14. Discuss the monster’s quote on page 191: “…it does not matter what you think… because your mind will contradict itself a hundred times each day. You wanted her to go at the same time you were desperate for me to save her. Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.” The monster says that speaking the truth is the way to combat this. Do you agree? Should one combat this, or is it ever okay to let yourself believe comforting lies to avoid painful truths? How would things have been different if Conor had relinquished the comforting lies from the beginning?
15. Conor is thirteen years old. Discuss his age and responsibilities. How would the story be different if he were older?
16. Discuss the monster’s statement that “What you think is not important. It is only important what you do” (192). Is this true? If thinking does not matter, why must Conor address his nightmare, which is rooted in thoughts rather than actions?