Book Review: A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls: written by Patrick Ness, inspired by Siobhan Dowd, and illustrated by Jim Kay

Release date: September 27th, 2011

Publisher: Walker Books

Format of Novel: Hardcover (Library book, thank you college!)

Summary (From good reads): The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.

But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...

This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth

- - -
You never know what a short novel can do to you unless you read it completely. As I write this to you, it would be only two days since I've read this beautiful book and I could NOT sit here and review it personally for you guys. This story, oh this story, it ripped my heart out with feels. The story was short and direct, the protagonist Conor, such a heart breaking kid considering what he was going through during this short novel, and the concept of the monster was simply beautiful to the core!

The story itself was about Conor, who is thirteen and living with his mother who is dying of cancer. During the struggles, he faces bullying, his hidden anger about his mother's illness, and the monster who has the shape of a giant tree who is also a odd story teller. Personally, I think that this was really cool having the monster tell Conor stories to teach him difficult lessons that would had be use in reality and the concept of the story as a whole was really heart-breaking and yet necessary for a coming of age story. Plus as a bonus, this story takes place in Ireland, which was a nice surprise in my opinion because of a lot of the stories I've been reading lately takes place in America or fictional worlds.

What I really liked about the story is the fact you as the reader are able to feel the emotions the monster wanted Conor to feel and to learn how to let go and move on. The story's moral was very deep and emotionally powerful enough to teach readers the stresses of overcoming a love one's death and with Conor, the author did a terrific job of doing that. I highly recommend this story and the pictures so you can capture the emotions of this novel.

Happy Howling.

I really recommend this novel

The end of it all, Welcome December!

Hey everyone, happy late December! (I'm a few days late, sue me, ha).

What is up everyone, welcome to the month of Winter's beginnings. NaNoWriMo was officially over a week ago and surprisingly I kicked it's ass! o-O It's so weird, but it felt awesome to win the event for the first time ever. I somehow managed to get to the 50k with five words ahead and only 2.5 hours remaining. I could've written more if I wanted too, but I had other homework to attend too at that time, including now since it's finals time.

Anyway, I'll keep this post short and basically go over the concept of what are the future plans I have in store for you all. I plan on writing throughout the majority of my month long break and posting on watt pad. When I have my first actual story posted on the 19th, I will be putting a link of it in my next post for you guys to enjoy. Along with that, I'm currently prepping for the booktube account I mentioned a little while ago and I'm praying I don't sound like a major idiot on you tube. Like the watt pad, I will be posting a link of my channel in the next post. However, I will not be posting a video till January 1st, mainly because of the 'new year' fever, but rest assure the videos will be began and also I will be returning with blog posts as well.

That's all I really got to say at the moment, right now finals are kicking my ass and I have to get back to work. Bye for now wolves and remember:

happy howling!

NaNoWriMo Post: The final countdown, help us all.

Hello my fellow wolves!

So I'm returning here to give you all a update on NaNoWriMo and let me tell you something important because I think you may take this to heart if you are a student like I am. NaNoWriMo is hard as all living hell!! School will kick your sorry butt into the curb till you will become brain-dead once all of the major school you have done is completely. Don't get me wrong, going to college will help you get somewhat further in life and I'm not bitching about that, but after dealing with so much crap and school work, it makes writing fairly difficult. I will tell you know, I am really surprise to be at 26k right now and I truly didn't think I would get that far this year in school, but hell if I lose this year's event, I will be happy to be where I am at now than to never start it from the get-go.

Since we are nearing the end of the event, I bet all of you are speed demon writing like I am just to get to a high ass word count. As a writer, I will push you and tell you to keep going because after writing for a certain amount of time, you will develop the urges to keep writing even when you can't because of life in general. The urge is strong I tell ya, it's crazy. If you are doing well, then congrats you're kicking ass, but if you're like me and are lacking, it's okay, keep trying even if you don't have the emotional and mental energy to do. I'm telling you, this event will make you grow as a writer. I promise. If you keep trying, things will get you far in writing.

In other relatable news, I've decided to try out book-tubing next year. I'm sort of figuring out, what better way to try to meet writers/readers than by doing that. I've always wanted to try it, but never had the guts to do it (plus I'm not that pretty to stare at..). But, considering I am going to be done with my second-to-last semester of my senior year in college, I'm starting to warm up to the idea of book-tubing. When I watch the other book-tubers like Polandbananasbooks, katy-tastic, etc and authors like Susan Dennard-- I get so excited because of the way how they are able to geek about books and other things freely without the bitter judgments. In a way, I feel like I need to start making a impact in literature and give out my opinion as a repayment to other writers and readers that want to explore the world that fiction and art can give us.

But yeah, that's all for now. Till I get things set up, I will be posting the links to share and get some stories prepped up for you guys on watt pad as well.

Till next time, guys.

Happy howling!

Weekly post of NaNoWriMo One

Hello everyone, welcome to November and in the writer's world-- NaNoWriMo! So I know I promised to be around more in the blogging world, but school took over my soul. Damn you college and the senior year. Okay, small hate rant over, let's talk.

NaNoWriMo is a time of heaven and frantic hell. A time where the writers to come together and enjoy our company to share our stories and bounce off inspiration. But, it's also a fun contest. Now I know what you're going to ask me, 'Do you win anything? How is this a contest?', in all honestly on my part, when I talk about a contest for NaNo-- it's basically a personal contest. A mental and emotional goal to yourself to reach the 50,000 word mark of whatever novel you're currently writing. I mean yeah you don't really any official prize, but you do get a chance to feel the burst of excitement when the creative juices pour into your mind and the empty/unfinished document you have sitting on your laptop.

It's suppose to encourage you as a writer and have fun with other writers around you in your home town or in another part of the world. It's a fun global event that I personally recommend for you guys to try out some time. Hell, you can join right now and get your butt into speed writing. This is a hard and fun event, but very fulfilling if you are truly serious as a writer.

In my personal weekly update, I'm somewhat close to the daily word count, but if as a college student, it is very difficult to maintain doing the event and keeping a keen eye on making yourself write. Since the event started, I somehow managed to get to 10k with my draft thus far, but this weekend was seriously lacking on my end and I didn't meet the word count for the last two days. So at this very moment, I'm working on it for day 9 so I can update the word count this coming Wednesday, why you ask? Well because I can, muhahaha and I also want to see if anyone will catch up or smash me like a ton of bricks with their high word count. Oh course that being said, I do have to keep up with the homework since I do have a major paper due on the 21st and some other wacko stuff approaching soon, so I'm not sure how this is gonna work out with NaNoWriMo.. I don't know, my school life is odd, like yours I'm sure. Hehehe.

So how are you guys doing in NaNoWriMo? Let's chat about it in the comments below. I hope to hear from you guys. And remember, Happy Howling my fellow wolves, stay tune for a few upcoming reviews for the week and next Sunday's NaNoWriMo weekly update on Sunday the 16th.

Bye for now!