A Monster Calls Chapter 27 Summary

What's the Use of You?

  • His grandma takes him home, where Conor realizes he'll probably never be able to go again. She tells him she'll be back to get him in an hour, then drives away to go back to the hospital.
  • The tree stays a tree, even though Conor yells at it to wake up. 
  • He even starts kicking the darn thing…
    … which is just annoying enough to make it come to life. The monster tells Conor he'll hurt himself if he doesn't cut it out.
  • Conor's straight up furious. He tells the tree it said it could help his mother, and it didn't. Not cool, tree.
  • Pardonnez-moi? The monster says that it didn't say that at all. What it said was that if Conor's mom could be healed, the yew tree medicine could do it. But apparently she couldn't be healed. That's that. 
  • Conor wants to know what the use of the monster is if it can't heal her. Fair question, kiddo. He thinks that all the monster came to do was get him in trouble.
  • The monster grabs the kid and holds him in the air. It's time for a real talking-to. It tells him that he, Conor, is the only one who can answer the question of why he summoned the monster.
  • To heal her, says Conor. Why else?
  • No, says the monster. Conor called it so it could heal him.
  • And now it's time for Conor to tell the monster the fourth tale.
  • Conor says he doesn't have time, but the monster has taken him back into the nightmare, so at this point, he doesn't have much of a choice.