Eliza and Her Monsters – Book Review

Author: Francesca Zappia
Published: May 30th 2017 by HarperCollins
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mental Health, Fandom
Rating: ★★★★★

Her story is a phenomenon. Her life is a disaster.

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.

Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.

But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart. (Goodreads Summary).

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“She drew so many monsters that she became a monster herself.”

This book is amazing. I read it through in one sitting because I just couldn’t stop. I’m so happy Owlcrate included it in their May Comic Explosion box!

Eliza is the creator of an extremely popular webcomic called Monstrous Sea and the book provided amazing drawings and snippets from this webcomic that the author Francesca Zappia drew HERSELF! How cool! I’m hoping the author will pull a Rainbow Rowell and release a graphic novel of Monstrous Sea, I would read that in a heartbeat. Anyways back to Eliza. She has build this fandom empire from her webcomic, there are tons of people writing fanfic about it, and subscribing to the webcomic. She has an online shop with merchandise that has done so well that she doesn’t even have to worry about paying for college. She is an internet goddess going by the name of LadyConstellation. But offline and outside of her bedroom she is just weird Eliza that people steer clear of. Until she meets Wallace who is the biggest fan of Monstrous Seas and they begin the cutest of awkward friendships!

“There is a small monster in my brain that controls my doubt.
The doubt itself is a stupid thing, without sense or feeling, blind and straining at the end of a long chain. The monster though, is smart. It’s always watching, and when I am completely sure of myself, it unchains the doubt and lets it run wild. even when I know it’s coming, I can’t stop it.”

I really loved Eliza. I can relate to her so well. Well other then drawing being her outlet, I can’t draw to save my life but I do love to read, to lose myself in a story far far away from my reality. Eliza is friendless IRL (by choice), she has two close friends online that she shares everything with. She doesn’t do well in social situations and steers clear of them if she can, as someone with social anxiety I can relate and sympathize. She feels like no one understands her but her online friends. And then she meets Wallace, who also has a stressful time dealing with social situations. I loved their weird little relationship so much! Wallace helps draw Eliza out of her shell a little bit. I also loved Eliza’s younger brothers. She thinks that they don’t really like her but after her secret is released into the world they really had her back. That hit me in the feels.

I appreciate that more and more books are being written about mental illnesses. It helps to know that other suffer too, that your not alone. And it shows those who get to live a normal life what others have to deal with. That we are still people too, just with monsters we have to live with.

I loved this book so much! It might be my favorite release of the year and definitely my favorite that has come in Owlcrate! I highly recommend reading it!

 

Since Owlcrate is sending out more and more books with custom covers I will be comparing them in my reviews. The cover on the left with the green text is the original cover. The one on the left with the yellow is the Owlcrate exclusive cover. I think I like it better.

“Fight your monsters” – Francesca Zappia