Title- Eliza and Her MonstersAuthor- Francesca Zappia
Series- N/A
Published- 2017
Page Count- 432
Publishing House- Greenwillow Books
Genre- YA Contemporary
Rating- 4/5 stars
About the Author
Francesca Zappia is the award-winning author of Made You Up, Eliza and Her Monsters, and the serialized novel The Children of Hypnos. She is represented by Louise Fury of the Bent Agency. She graduated from the University of Indianapolis with a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, and currently lives in Indiana. She spends her free time drawing, playing video games, and baking.
She looks mean, but she's actually a ball of floof on the inside.
You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @ChessieZappia, on Goodreads, and on Pinterest. She also sells her artwork at her Society6 shop.
Taken from Francesca's website
Plot
“A love letter to fandom, friendship, and the stories that shape us, Eliza and Her Monsters is absolutely magical.”—Marieke Nijkamp, New York Times–bestselling author of This Is Where It Ends
Eighteen-year-old Eliza Mirk is the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea, but when a new boy at school tempts her to live a life offline, everything she’s worked for begins to crumble.
Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl meets Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona in this acclaimed novel about art, fandom, and finding the courage to be yourself. “A must-have.”—School Library Journal
In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, Eliza is LadyConstellation, anonymous creator of a popular webcomic called Monstrous Sea. With millions of followers and fans throughout the world, Eliza’s persona is popular. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves her digital community.
Then Wallace Warland transfers to her school and Eliza 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.
With pages from Eliza’s webcomic, as well as screenshots from Eliza’s online forums, this uniquely formatted book will appeal to fans of Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona and Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl. The paperback edition includes bonus material and never-before-seen art from the author.
Taken from Goodreads
Opinions
I had been meaning to pick up Eliza and Her Monsters for some time after hearing everyone raving about it. I finally picked up as I had heard nothing but good things about it. I found it to be an engaging read that was also really quick. I think I read it in a couple of days. On the whole, I enjoyed it, but I had a few issues with it. I would recommend it to others and am interested in reading her other book, Made You Up.
To me, it felt that it handled some of the more darker themes really well. Eliza throughout the course of the book is diagnosed with anxiety and is clearly struggling with it throughout. Wallace is a mute boy who also has some traumatic experiences in his past and clearly struggles due to them. I felt that the way Zappia handled Eliza's anxiety was an accurate portrayal and Wallace's dad's suicide was also handled with care. The book had a very dark tone, but it was still really enjoyable. With the themes of fandoms and friendship weaved throughout, it felt like a very relatable book. In places, it wasn't realistic, such as Eliza having enough money to go to college and her parents not knowing. I think the way that Zappia handled these themes was one of the most enjoyable elements of the book.
This might just be me, but at times Eliza was and wasn't a likeable character. I could relate to her in certain ways, but in others, I found her irritating. I understand that she had mental health problems, but she could be cruel towards her brothers and how little she knew about their lives. I also felt that she was cruel to her parents a lot of time and treated them like they were idiots. She kept them out of the loop and it blew up in her face, which wasn't surprising. I have mixed feelings about what I feel about Eliza. I think it might just be me as I haven't seen anyone else say anything on the reviews I've read.
From the get-go, I knew that Eliza's secret would be revealed and that it would blow up in her face. It was very predictable in that way. I think the way Zappia revealed Eliza's secret was clever, but that didn't mean that it was any less shocking. I knew it was going to happen and when it did, I was like "oh, okay, what's next?". I feel like it could have been a huge moment but it fell a bit flat for me. It was also predictable that her secret was going to ruin her relationship with Wallace, but that they would inevitably make it up. As soon as you learnt he was a part of the fandom, it lost its shock value. This didn't make the novel any less enjoyable, I just feel it could have been done slightly better for the effect she was going for.
Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that I am not a fan of the fixed by love mental health trope and sadly this book had this trope. It would have been so much more powerful if Eliza and Wallace's relationship was platonic and it was two friends just spending time with each other. I think it's cliched that two people would fall in love and magically no longer have any mental health problems. This was the one big issue I had with the book and if it hadn't had this trope, I would have (maybe) given it five stars, not four.
