Having lost my mum last year to the biggest monster of them all - cancer, this book was especially poignant for me. I wasn't expecting to be moved as much as I was - I wasn't expecting the book, as it unravelled, to present me with some of my own fears and feelings, some of things I wanted to say, to admit to myself, but couldn't. I wanted to break down and cry at the end, not just with sadness, but at the important step in the grieving process this book was for me. The monster was as insightful as any therapist - its message, when it came, painful and true. Life is unfair. Bad stuff happens. And stories don't always have happy endings.