Wow. Reading this book was like getting the wind knocked out of you; thrilling, overwhelming, and suddenly it's very hard to breather.

I'm a huge fan of Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy, and this book did not disappoint. His beautiful prose reveals the depths and ugliness of human natures, as we attempt to hide the ugly truths we cannot even admit to ourselves. And of course the whole novel is told from the perspective of a 13 year old boy. So the reader receives a wonderful childlike innocence clashing with a grown up realization of the real world.

This book would be incomplete without the illustrations. They are hauntingly perfect and beautiful. Nearly all of the drawings are overwhelming dark, bout it adds such power to the words that I can't imagine the novel without them. Jim Kay mastered the art of the monster, making him appear threatening and vague enough to allow the reader's imagination to fill the monster with their individual worst fears.

I cannot praise this book enough. The characters are flawless and perfectly crafted. Connor's relationships with his father and grandmother were so achingly perfect and terribly heartbreaking. Also Harry was a wonderful three dimensional bully, being that he so completely understood how to hurt Connor in the worst way possible. I cried through the last third of this novel; it didn't help to read beforehand that it was originally Siobhan Dowd's idea, but she died before penning it. I recommend this book to everyone, because there is no way to consider this a book meant just for children.