"A Monster Calls" by Patrick Ness, Inspired by Siobhan Dowd

Whew! Amazing book. Beautiful, lyrical, and deeply moving. My favorite TAB book of the year. Siobhan Dowd died of breast cancer at 47 but made a significant impact in her short life, being hailed as a "literary legacy" by some. Her five novels and social activism struck home with many, and Patrick Ness has created a breathtaking book, based on her concept and notes, as an homage. There is really nothing about the book that isn't fabulous. The story is deeply woven, the characters complex, the artwork stunning and the arc of the book paradoxically what you expect and what you don't. Sucked in from the very beginning, it was a page turner I was loathe to put down. Had it not been for my semi-insane life, I would have ripped through it in one sitting. As it was, the ending had me grabbing for tissue after tissue. At its core is an examination of love and loss, of humanity and struggle, and the question: which is more scary -- a monsters of our minds or the toll that cancer can take? Powerful and well-wrought, this one is a classic, as far as I'm concerned.