This book didn't quite live up to the hype, but it was still the best Rebecca Caudill book I've read so far. 
 I've never really cried when reading a book before. My eyes watered when reading the last few pages of Petey, I blinked many times and stared off into space after finishing The Little Prince, and for this book, my eyes were prickling with almost-tears. 
 We still need a book that will make me actually cry, and a book that will actually make my tears fall on the ground, but for now, I guess this is the closest we're going to get. 
 I was reviewing the Rebecca Caudill list during August, seeing what books I had to read, and then I saw this book. I practically flipped out when I saw the author. This was basically me: "OMG OMG IT'S PATRICK NESS LOOK LOOK IT'S HIM" 
 So this got shifted to the top of my priority list for Rebecca Caudill. 
 I checked out the eBook for this book, and it took me a while to pick it up. But once I did, I fell upon it, all like "ok, let's do this, i'm waiting for perfection". 
 And guess what? The beginning almost made me fall asleep. 
 To be fair, that was like, a day after a sleepover, where I had stayed up until around 4 AM, but still. After that strange incident, I didn't pick up A Monster Calls until almost a week, when I said to myself, "let's try this mess again". 
 I was glad I did. 
 The beginning is really dull, in my opinion. It introduced a lot of things (read: Lily) that didn't prove extremely important to the overall plotline and a lot of things that never really got resolved (read: Lily). I was a bit confused, because I thought, "wait, isn't this patrick ness? what is he doing, making me almost fall asleep...?" 
 The monster soon became a character that I looked forward to seeing. The monster is a fascinating character in and of itself. It's ancient, and it's old enough to remember almost everything on this earth. The monster is complex in mystery. Did that make sense? No? Okay. 
 The tales the monster tells are also wonderful. I liked reading all of them, and the loopholes he does seem to find are also a little amusing, enough to see Conor rage. 
 Overall, I can't really explain why I liked this book. But I liked it. The beginning might have been a bit poor, but the middle and end definitely make up for it. I feel so bad for Conor's mom. So bad. 
 This book stirred up so many emotions, and it's just... AHH. 
 AUTHOR REVIEWS: 
 My review of The Knife of Never Letting Go 
 My review of The Ask and the Answer