ELIZA AND HER MONSTERS By Francesca Zappia

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
Published by Greenwillow Books on 5/30/17
Genres: Contemporary, Mental Health, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 400
Format: Hardcover
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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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.

Short and Sweet

In reality Eliza Mirk is shy, she doesn’t have many friends, and to others she’s weird. But online Eliza becomes LadyConstellation, she’s the anonymous creator of a popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. When Eliza finds out that Wallace a new student at school is a big fan fiction writer of Monstrous Sea she just writes him off as another fan. But as Eliza becomes closer to Wallace she begins to wonder if maybe she could have a life outside of Monstrous Sea.

Characters

Eliza: Eliza is shy and is mainly in her own world, and that world is Monstrous Sea. Eliza is comfortable when she’s working on Monstrous Sea and when she’s online. Eliza was a relatable character just trying to get through senior, trying to figure out what she wants to do after high school and Monstrous Sea.

Wallace: Wallace doesn’t talk much after something that happened to him in the past. Although he doesn’t talk much it doesn’t bother Eliza because she also rarely talks in school. I thought Wallace was a great character he wants to be a writer and we also learn about his background and what makes Wallace who he is today.

Romance

Eliza and Wallace: Wallace is new in school and is in Eliza’s homeroom. After learning that they’re both Monstrous Sea fans they start to spend more time together. I liked these two together. As I mentioned earlier Wallace doesn’t talk much so when they’re in school they pass notes back in forth. What I liked most about this couple was that Wallace helped Eliza get out of her comfort zone, and Eliza helped Wallace believe he should follow his dream and become a writer.

My Thoughts

~ Eliza has worked hard on Monstrous Sea and its a popular web comic. One of my favorite things about the book was that we get to see pages from the web comic.

~ Eliza has two younger brothers and she lives with her parents. Her parents don’t understand why Monstrous Sea is so important to Eliza and they just want to spend more time with her. I think that even though Eliza doesn’t spend much time with her brothers they definitely came through for her in the end when they supported her after everyone found out that she was the creator of Monstrous Sea.

~ Eliza two friends are Max and Emmy and they’re her online friends we get to see their chats and text with each other. I liked how supportive they all were of each other even though they haven’t met in real life.

~ Eliza suffers from social anxiety, anxiety, and depression. Eliza try to keep everything bottled up but in the end she ends up having to see a therapist after everything becomes too much for her to handle.

~ I thought the plot was great and so was the pacing of the book. I liked seeing how at the start of the book Eliza isolates herself from people, then she meets Wallace and tries to get out of her comfort zone, to Eliza having to deal with her issues instead of keeping them bottled up.

Overall

I loved this book and I fell in Love with Eliza’s character. The plot and the characters were great and I loved getting to see some of the pages from Monstrous Sea and seeing the hard work that Eliza puts into her comics. The writing was realistic and it was hard to put this book down and it is now one of my favorite books!