There are certain books. If you read one, you know that it was that kind of book. You can't know until you've read one. 
 There are signs, though. 
 One of those signs is if it's still that kind of book when you read it for the second time. 
 This book is that kind. 
 The kind of book that is so powerful that you can read it only once a year- if that. 
 Like the Monster so often tells Conor: 
 You Must Speak the Truth. 
 Patrick Ness is good at this. This may be a children's book. It may just be a story (just, ha! Stories are dangerous.) It may be made up. But that doesn't matter. What Ness does is he riddles his story with truths. He pulls apart stories, he pulls apart preconceived notions of good and bad, and he finds some truth there, and he shows it to us. And it's not always pretty, and it's never black and white or simple. But it's there. 
 And I don't think I understand a word of what I just wrote. 
 But this book is amazing.