What 'A Monster Calls' Gets Right About Kids and a Parent's Cancer

On screen

"A Monster Calls" opens with 13-year-old Conor O'Malley having the same nightmare, night after night. His mother is partway through cancer treatment — the film never names the type — and a new round has just failed. At 12:07 a.m., a monster made of yew tree wood appears outside his window. It says it will tell him three stories. After that, Conor must tell a fourth: the truth about his own recurring nightmare. That truth, when it finally comes, is that Conor is worn out by his mother's illness. He wants it to be over, even if that means losing her. The film treats this admission not as a moral failure, but as the thing that finally lets him grieve.

Patrick Ness wrote the novel from an idea left unfinished by author Siobhan Dowd, who died of breast cancer before she could write it herself. The story centers on what a child goes through — not the illness itself, but the sitting-with-it.

The reality for children

The film shows anger that erupts at school, withdrawal, guilt over ordinary resentments, and a wish for the waiting to end. These resemble reactions the National Cancer Institute (NCI) lists for children whose parent has cancer. NCI guidance notes that even young children sense when something is wrong. It says children should hear that nothing they did caused the cancer, that cancer does not always mean death, and that they will be cared for.

Conor's anger is a documented pattern, not an outlier. NCI lists reactions such as trouble at school or at home, clinginess, and acting younger than their age. None of it means a child is failing to cope. It means the situation is hard.

What actually helps

The monster in the film works like a kind of externalized therapy. It gives Conor permission to say an unspeakable thing by wrapping it in a fable first. That mirrors a common practice in child support: using story, art, or play to help a child approach feelings too large to state directly. A story about a monster is safer to tell than a story about wanting your mother's suffering to end.

The film does not suggest that talking to a tree will change a medical outcome, and neither does the real guidance it echoes. What NCI recommends is more concrete: honesty, letting children keep going to school and activities, and letting them talk to other trusted adults. A counselor or support group built for kids facing a parent's illness can also help. The fable is the delivery mechanism for honesty, not a substitute for it.

What to keep in perspective

• The film never names Conor's mother's cancer type, and neither this article nor the film is describing a specific diagnosis or prognosis.
• A child's anger, guilt, or wish for an illness to be "over" is a normal grief response, not evidence of poor character or poor parenting.
• Fiction can open a conversation; it is not a substitute for a child's own counselor, pediatrician, or a hospital's family support team.

Sources

• National Cancer Institute, "Talking to Children About Cancer"
• National Cancer Institute, "Coping with Cancer"
• "A Monster Calls" (2016), directed by J.A. Bayona, screenplay by Patrick Ness, based on his 2011 novel

How this article was prepared

An AI-assisted editorial system helped prepare this page. No named medical reviewer has reviewed it unless one is listed.

Cancer Explained is published by the National Cancer Information Foundation. It is not medical advice and does not suggest a test or treatment.

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