She assigns a life-writing project that asks students to write about the most significant events of their life. She is depicted as being strict and having a permanent frown. She tries to get Conor to open up about what he is going through at home and on the playground with Harry and the other bullies. Miss Kwan is the Head of Year for Conor's grade. Lily defends Conor against bullies but Conor still rejects her friendship. Lily is Conor's longtime friend from whom he becomes estranged after she tells people at school about his mother's cancer. When Conor asks to live with his father instead of his grandmother, Conor's father says there isn't enough room for him. Conor feels alienated by the way Conor's father's accent and pet names have changed since he moved to the States. Conor's fatherĬonor's father lives in America with his new wife and their baby daughter. Her condition worsens over the course of the book. She has lost her hair from the treatments, and sometimes covers her bald head with scarves. Conor's motherĬonor's mother is undergoing chemotherapy treatments throughout the novel. As a top-scoring student and 'Blond Wonder Child,' Harry is able to obscure his bullying tendencies by impressing teachers. Harry is a student at Conor’s school who taunts and physically assaults Conor on a daily basis. Conor dislikes how she doesn't behave like most grandmothers, as she doesn't cook, dyes her hair, and is bossy toward Conor. She briefly moves in to Conor's mother's house when the cancer treatments leave Conor's mother weak, and Conor later moves in with her. Conor’s grandmotherĬonor's grandmother is a real estate agent in her sixties. Prone to anger and isolation, Conor learns with the monster's help to accept the unfair reality of his mother's impending death. He is also the victim of bullying at school. At thirteen, Conor is haunted by a dream in which his terminally ill mother's hands slip from his grasp. Conor is the novel's protagonist and point-of-view character.

A monster calls audio book