The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

It’s officially spooky season! This month’s Saturday Spotlight theme is Spooky!

Honestly, I am not a spooky girl! I like romance, royalty, and fantasy! I have almost entirely avoided spooky my entire life, which I know makes me a minority, but I still want to participate in the Halloween season. So, this month I am sharing books that fit into the spooky season but are not really that scary or even spooky.

This week I am sharing my all-time favorite horror book, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. Honestly, it shocked me when I learned this was a horror book. This book is so good and real. I totally thought it was more of an exploration of the human experience and grief. All of this culminates into a tragedy for me, but others might see a different side of things.

This book is so real for me. It explores the complex reality of grief, and the black and white reality we live in. It honestly helped me acknowledge my own grief and the way I think about loss. It also explores, beautifully, the black and white thinking of children. The end of this book has not failed to bring me to tears. No amount of my words will do this book justice; you just have to read it!

The bestselling novel about love, loss and hope from the twice Carnegie Medal-winning Patrick Ness.

Conor has the same dream every night, ever since his mother first fell ill, ever since she started the treatments that don’t quite seem to be working. But tonight is different. Tonight, when he wakes, there’s a visitor at his window. It’s ancient, elemental, a force of nature. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth.

Patrick Ness takes the final idea of the late, award-winning writer Siobhan Dowd and weaves an extraordinary and heartbreaking tale of mischief, healing and above all, the courage it takes to survive.