I have just read Patrick Ness’s novel ‘A Monster Calls’ - in one sitting. This novel
is based on an original story left unfinished by Siobhan Down, the prize winning ‘Young Adult’ author who tragically
died before she could write it herself. Patrick
Ness was invited to do so and his book
has won five major prizes and been highly praised by, among many others, Malorie Blackman, Phillip Pullman, Frank
Cottrell Boyce and Mary Hoffman.
It has now been filmed and is now on
release. Directed by J. A. Bayone it has Liam Neeson,
Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones and
Lewis MacDougal in the cast. It is the
story of young Connor and the Yew Tree Monster that comes to help him (drag
him!) into facing the two most terrifying
things in his life.
‘A
Monster Calls’ is a so-called ‘Young Adult’ novel, but this is only a
convenient genre description that
does not limit it’s power or depth. It tackles some of the most important subjects in life and does so with honesty, great
compassion and acute psychological awareness.
This is hardly surprising from the author
who gave us the profound and original ‘Chaos Walking’ trilogy (including the
title Monsters of Men), winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction
prize, the Costa Children’s Book Award
and the Carnegie medal. I will however go to see the film of ‘A Monster Calls’ with my heart in my throat, as I now know that it will remind me and anyone
who has been through – or been close to
someone who has been through – the heart-rending phase of grief that must, it seems, come before true heart-mending.
I see that the film of Ness’s Chaos Walking is now in pre-production and due
for release in 2018. Robert Zemeckis
had been slated to direct it, but that role has now fallen to Doug Liman, (2 Bourne movies, Edge of Reason aka Live Die
Repeat and Mr & Mrs Smith)
with the script adapted by Charlie Kaufman (Eternal
Kingdom of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovitch, Adaptation and Anomalisa) so plenty of talent there! Plus Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley cast in the main roles. You may have seen Tom Holland in ‘The Impossible’ or as Thomas Cromwell’s
son Gregory in the BBC’s magnificent Wolf Hall.
Daisy Ridley was of course Ley in
Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
I have been looking forward to this film
being made for a few years now , and hope it will at last come to
completion. I don’t know if I will be another trilogy –
it certainly deserves to be. Patrick
Ness is willing and able to tackle very difficult subjects in ways that never
condescend or simplify and yet are completely accessible to readers across the
YA and adult range. I do
not yet know how good these new films will be – though I have high hopes – but
I strongly recommend his books. I will also look out for Siobhan Down’s four books. I am sure that the books we read in our
teens can shape our lives so I love to see books that are full of challenge,
compassion and wisdom. Ursula Le Guin
and Charles Dickens did it for me 50 years ago
and they have worthy successors.
