Date Finished: November 16, 2017
Page Count: 385
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Francesca
Zappia is a writing genius, a true treasure of the decade, one who can speak
straight to the soul. I already had a good feeling about her novel, Eliza and Her Monsters When my eyes fell
upon it a couple days ago while browsing through the library and this book exceeded
my expectations. From her writing style, to her characters, to the depth she
put into the plot, and the additional drawings she included in the book to
better understand the main character, Eliza Mirk I fell in love with this book
on page one and feel that most teenagers and online artist, and maybe even the
general American population, will enjoy this book as much as I have.
Let me cut
to the case here, I’m an artist, if you couldn’t tell by looking at my other
review and the occasional picture I’d draw after being inspired by the story. I
also post my stuff online and long story short, live in constant fear of having
my identity discovered and then being hunted down by someone who hates me.
Eliza has those exact same fears as me and I instantly felt a bond established
and cared deeply for her character. My bond became more of an, *ahem*,
idolization when I got to experience just how successful her web comic, Monstrous Sea (which should totally be a
real thing) is and all the effort she puts into it and the money she gets out
of it. A large part of me really wants to be Eliza because how successful she
is, but then I remind myself I’m successful in my own ways and only having
drawing as my hobby. Surprisingly enough my actual dream job is to be a
genetic counselor. But Eliza isn’t without her flaws and they’re what
also make me love her character so much.
Something all
of us are probably guilty for is not spending enough time with are families or
even ignoring them. This is a huge problem for Eliza as she always wants to
spend her time drawing and will lock herself in her room to do so. It’s so bad
her parents don’t know much about Monstrous
Sea and Eliza knows practically nothing about her parents or who two
brothers, Sully and Church (who being revealed to be the type of sibling who picks
the others up when they’re down). Eliza also feels no need to talk to others at
school unless necessary and has become some sort of taboo that everyone tries
to avoid, with the exception of Wallace Warland, who approaches her due to
getting the idea that she likes Monstrous
Sea (though he doesn’t realizes at first that she created it due to her anonymity
online). This leads to the two becoming friends and then more than friends, but
when Eliza’s parents using her senior shout out thing to tell the school that
she created Monstrous Sea and Wallace
finds out their relationship get a little shaken up, due to Eliza lying to him
and they don’t talk for a large portion of the end of the book. Eliza even gets
to go to point of going to therapy and considering suicide just because she
tired of everything, something I wasn’t expecting to happen when I first picked
up the book. But all turns out well for her as she has the support of her
friends, family fans, and Wallace and ends up overcoming her paranoia to finish
Monstrous Sea. I’d love to write all
about what and how I love about Eliza’s journey but we’d be here too long if I
did that so let me just say you should read the book and realize just how right
I am about all of this.
Super awesome character art that Francesca Zappia drew of Eliza.
Then there’s
Wallace, the most popular fan fiction writer for Monstrous Sea that just moved to school halfway through senior
year. Wallace was actually a former football player at his old school but when
his dad committed suicide due to unhappiness in life it hurt Wallace and he
ended up quitting football and nearly stops talking too. This was another
unsuspecting this about the novel I didn’t see coming when I picked up the
cover, but let me just come out and say all the little things in this novel are
what I love most about it and really pulled me through the book. Any who, I
love the relationship Wallace and Eliza start to develop over the course of the
book stating out with writing to each other on a piece of paper and then
passing it to each other, to hanging out with each other, then meeting each
other’s families. The relationships where the people start as friends and the
build to the status of loves is the kind of relationship I like to read about,
and Zappia just wrote the relationships of these two so beautifully. I also
love the quite nature of Wallace that we similarly see in Eliza yet how
dedicated he was to his work and could get really excited about it.
More awesome character at by Francesca Zappia, but this time it of
Wallace.
The
characters were amazing here but I also love the format of the novel. Most of
the story was told in the first person view point of Eliza, but occasionally we
got to read the private messages between Eliza, Max and Emmy which leads to
some hilarious conversations that are super relatable and fun to read. Sometimes
in the middle or end (usually the end of chapters) we get a picture of
something from Monstrous Sea and some
text that to accompany it that goes along with the picture. Other than looking
super cool, these pictures often related to what was actually happening to
Eliza in the plot and helped me to understand her character more which was
super cool. Other times, we get to read the post of Wallace or Eliza on the Monstrous Sea forum when continent to
the plot and those were stitched together super well too. Letters, emails and
the like get formatted in a couple times which were always fun to read
(especially in another text than the typical text). Then there’s chapter 40
which is just a conversation between Eliza and her therapist and I love that
chapter so much, as it reveals so much with its dialogue and I love how
different an abnormal the formatting is. How many books can you remember reading
that were completely or had at least one chapter that was just a conversation
between two characters? It’s an amazing thing to experience let me tell you,
and you should totally read the book for it! Favorite scene has to be Eliza think
about suicide in chapter 42 by driving off Wellhouse Bridge (the same place
Wallace’s dad committed suicide mind you) and Wallace drives to meet her there
and talk her out of doing it. It may seem like a strange scene to have as my
favorite but I love how it shows how much Wallace know Eliza when pretty much
no one else does and goes to stop her from making such a big mistake. Essentially
it was a punch right in the feels if you know what I mean. Toughing moments
like that are amazing and you should really read the book to get what I mean.
So to summarize,
relatable characters, relatable plot, touching moments, and the overall journey
of learning to interact and love others means you should read this book. Right
now. Go to the public library or even better, the book store and read this book.
It will not disappoint you. Unless you live under a rock or have teenaged kids.
I doubt people that old will be able to understand this book as well as those
who have grown up being a part of fandoms or spend a great portion of their
time on the internet. Why are you still here reading this post? Go read the
book and you can thank me later. I cannot stress how much I loved this book and
what other people to experience Zappia’s glory as well. Who knows, maybe I’ll
read her other book, Made You Up
someday to. Now go get a copy of Eliza
and her Monsters and read it right now!!!
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