History Literature / AMonsterCalls

-->"Conor O'Malley," he said, his voice growing poisonous now. "Who everyone's sorry for because of his mum. Who swans around school acting like he's so different, like no one knows his suffering."

* NoNameGiven: Conor's mom, dad, and grandma are only ever referred as such.

* YouAreNotAlone: [[spoiler: Before injuring Harry]] Conor feels invisible due to how the students and teachers act around him. After the other students avoid him, Lily reaches out to Conor with a note that says "''I'' see you."

* HumansAreFlawed: One of the main themes of the book, and particularly of the first story.

* AdultFear: Losing the most important person to you to a disease that wastes them away slowly.
** Another example is after the fourth story, where Conor's grandma says she looked for him for hours, so she had to face the possibility of losing both her daughter and her grandson on the same day.

* CruelMercy: Combined with [[UnPerson Un-Person]], this is what Harry eventually does to Conor.

* NotSoDifferent: Conor and his grandma are far from seeing eye to eye, they find common ground in the fact that Conor's mom is the most important person for both of them.
** When Conor's grandma returns home after he's destroyed the sitting room, he's terrified that she'll be furious and ship him off to military school. Instead, [[spoiler:she roars in anguish and knocks over the one piece of furniture that Conor left standing before retreating to her bedroom, making it clear just how much she's been holding in her own pain over the imminent death of her daughter.]]

!!Tropes that associate with ''A Monster Calls''.

* KarmaHoudini: Played with [[spoiler:Conor in the film]]. The fact that he ''didn't'' get punished for what he does seems to hurt him even more. The book makes it more clear that Conor ''wants'' to be punished, because being punished would be a normal thing to happen to him, and let him feel that his life is not horribly different. The principal has good intentions and is trying to make things easier on an emotionally suffering student, but getting special treatment just makes him feel ''worse''.

* WhamLine: From the Monster to Conor: "[[spoiler:I didn't come to heal her, I came to heal you.]]"

* MyMasterRightOrWrong: The Monster clearly has a code of action, but he's perfectly willing to let Conor destroy his grandmother's living room (or help him do it, it's not clear). The same thing happens when [[spoiler:Harry is beaten to a pulp]]. The Monster's code seems more geared to telling the truth and acting how you really mean it regardless of how complex that feeling may be. So it may be that the Monster knows that what Conor is doing is not how he should be, but [[TheOnlyWayTheyWillLearn wants him to learn from the results]].
** As an example of who we are talking about here, the Monster saves the life of a witch who was accused to crimes she didn't commit but also destroyed the house of a parson who he found would change beliefs on a whim. The Monster also loves wordplay, while he certainly doesn't lie he will speak in ways that could mislead.
** Further, Conor has very complex feelings to his mother's death. Wanting her pain to end, but not that he wants her dead. The Monster wants Conor to be able to act how he feels in his heart, his inner truth, but is not at all opposed to letting Conor act out as a way of venting. The Monster sees this is as better than bottling it in or forcing him to make it a simpler issue.