RATING- 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
AUTHOR- Francesca Zappia
Elisa and her Monsters is the kind of book that stays with you long after you've finished reading it. The story came to me at just the right time in my life, a time when I really needed a story like this, a story with such a relatable character. No matter who you are, I am sure some part of Eliza's character will resonate with you.
As far as the premise of the book goes, Eliza is a really closed off, introverted girl who just wants to hide in the shadows. BUT she is also a massively popular web-comic writer and illustrator with thousands of fans. She goes by the name of Lady Constellation but nobody knows who she really is. And Eliza wants to keep it that way as long as possible.
Then she meets a new boy at her school named Wallace, who is one of the biggest fan fiction writers of her webcomic, Monstrous Sea. He makes her think that maybe a life offline wouldn't be so bad and they start becoming friends. But then her secret accidentally gets out and her whole world comes crashing down. The author really makes us see how deeply it has affected her- making her lose her sense of privacy and comfort and security that being anonymous behind the screen gave her. That event becomes the catalyst for her downward spiral.
Anyone who is anyone on the Internet knows that social media gives as much as it takes, so when you see Eliza caught up and drowning in the chaos that ensues after the revelation of her identity, all her panic, anxiety and desperation hit you like a freight train.
I would like to put up a content warning for anxiety and suicide ideation here.
One last thing I wanted to say was that the character arc for Eliza was really well done. You can see how much she (and the people around her) have grown and developed. At first she is only seen as a teenage girl constantly on her phone and often chastised by her parents for not spending enough time with with her family. But then we see how extremely passionate about her art she is. We see her deep love for her characters and the world she has created.
This story has all the more resonated with me because I am a writer myself. I love making up stories, playing with characters and then giving life to them on paper. Reading this was like getting a peek into my own brain! It was wonderful and I highly recommend picking this one up
Comments