Matt Haig’s wonderful take on Hamlet-meets-Patrick Ness’ A
Monster Calls is an absolute delight to read – but be prepared to have your
heart melted and broken and deliciously/masochistically destroyed in a variety
of ways. It’s the tale of a young boy, son to a pub landlord who dies under
suspicious circumstances, an anxious little chap struggling with the loss of
his father while having to navigate the tricky seas of a dodgy uncle honing in on
his mother and the inheritance… if that wasn’t enough, he speaks to the ghost
of his father who demands revenge and thinks up plots to stop the union of
Dodgy Uncle and Mum. It’s an incredible burden to place on a kid’s shoulders,
and of course young Philip feels overwhelmed, but his sense of duty, love for
his father and fear for his mother leave him little choice than to follow suit.
In his young mind, it’d be betrayal to go against his parents’ will, but even
more so, to deny his father’s last wish. More so, to have to save his father
from a fate worse than death.
It’s an intense contradictory mix of the inner world of a
grieving child, of loyalty, of bravery, of grief and of weights a child’s shoulder
shouldn’t carry. Even the least maternal soul may well go all protective and
parental on the young protagonist. And the twist in the outcome is just as
unexpected as life’s turns itself.
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