About the book: 2012 / "The Voice of a Monster" is a story about a 13-year-old boy named Conor O'Malley, who lives with his terminally ill mother. His father left with his new family for America, his grandmother is getting as young as she can and does not understand Conor at all, and at school almost everyone, except for a group of hooligans bullying the boy, tries not to notice him. And then at 12:07 at night a monster comes to Conor... “The Voice of the Monster” is not a good fairy tale, although it is intended for children and teaches them the right things. “The Voice of a Monster” is not entirely an entertaining book, although it is read in one sitting. “The Voice of the Monster” tells children about things that parents don’t usually discuss with them. This is exactly what quality children's literature should be. It is interesting that the British Librarians Association gave The Voice of the Monster an age rating of “nine and older,” but in Russian realities such books are not written even for sixteen-year-olds. It is worth noting that the concept of the novel did not belong to Patrick Ness. The original idea was conceived by the famous English writer Siobhan Dowd when she was terminally ill. She didn’t have enough time to write the novel, but she told the idea to her editor, who also worked with Ness. As a result, Patrick created the book entirely in his own style, but using Dowd’s idea as a basis. The paradox of the text is that it is almost impossible to evaluate it from the point of view of the plot and characters. Well, what's the plot here? There is no story here as such. It is replaced by a set of episodes through which the changes happening to Conor are revealed. There are actually no heroes either - we don’t see the usual descriptions of anyone’s characters, including Conor himself. However, individual scenes and reactions of characters themselves form complete images before the eyes of readers. The author's style deserves special attention: short chopped sentences, few descriptions - all so that even the language of “The Voice of a Monster” stands out from traditional children's books. In contrast to the depiction of Conor's gray life are the monster's bright stories - at first glance, ordinary fairy tales, but with non-standard endings that make you think and rethink the essence of these stories. It would be more correct to call them parables, whose morals are far from Christian, or children's horror stories, as they were in those days when young souls were not protected from the cruelty and realities of the world around them. For Russia, such a frank conversation with children is rare. For example, a heroic prince who committed murder, who "said he did it for the good of the kingdom" and claimed that death "helped destroy a great evil" is not the most typical character in fairy tales. The monster’s own comments on fairy tales are also relevant: “Kingdoms get the princes they deserve.” But the most important thing is the final story - the one for which the monster came to Conor. The issues of family values, fear of the unknown, friendship and enmity, but above all life and death, that are relevant for the young hero, are presented not in a generalized and faceless manner, but in a deeply individual way. After all, “The Voice of a Monster” is not a book that the whole family reads. It will evoke their own, very personal emotions for everyone..