Review | Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
Title: Eliza and Her Monsters
Author: Francesca Zappia
Genre/s: Contemporary, Young Adult
Published by Harper Collins on 30th May 2017
BEST BOOK EVER! There's no doubt, I have one hundred percent fallen in love with this book. Like really really fallen in love with it! - If you are a creator of any kind and post whatever it is you create on the internet, whether you are an artist or writer or whatever I think that you will find this extremely relatable and love it just as much as I did. I really connected with the characters, especially Eliza. I saw myself in her and that made it so easy to become lost in this book. This book has one of the most well written accounts of a person suffering with both anxiety and depression that I have ever read about and I think that is another reason I personally connected with this book and these characters so much. The way the author wrote Eliza's relationship with Wallace was also wonderful and it helped that I adored them as separate individuals as well as together as a couple. Which doesn't happen very often to be honest.
“Broken people don't hide from their monsters. Broken people let themselves be eaten.”
Now to explain it a little: The protagonist Eliza Mirk has a secret, she is LadyConstellation the creator of a very popular webcomic called Monstrous Sea. Only her family and a couple of online friends know her identity, so when she meets a fan in person she pretends to be another fan too and keeps her identity a secret. Things obviously develop from there.
“I'm so tired. I'm tired of anxiety that twists my stomach so hard I can't move the rest of my body. Tired of constant vigilance. Tired of wanting to do something about myself, but always taking easy way out.”
Eliza was such an interesting character, very original and well thought out. As soon as I read the first page I had to carry on, I quickly became addicted to the wonderful characters. The book as a whole was interesting, full of unexpected humour and to top it off it was crazy emotional. I wasn't expecting so much depth, but the characters were extremely well developed, the plot was fast moving but not too fast as there were still the odd slow burning moments. I don't know if I am making sense but I'm just trying to say that the pace changed throughout and it actually worked well. Often when the pace changes in a book or it jumps around that makes me feel disconnected from the story but that didn't happen with this book. Francesca Zappia really worked magic into her writing. It is astounding, it's like every word you read really means something, she is probably one of the most quotable authors I have ever read.
“Like life, what gives a story its meaning is the fact that it ends. Our stories have lives of their own—and its up to us to make them mean something.”
The multimedia format was fun and definitely added something extra to the experience of reading and I especially enjoyed the little snippets of the webcomic. I can see why some people are comparing it to fangirl as it has that sort of feel to it and they are both about similar things except the protagonist (Cath) in fangirl is writing fanfiction and in Eliza and Her Monsters, Eliza is creating something of her own. I would say that if you have read either of these books I think that you will enjoy the other. I preferred this book more though, as soon as I finished the last chapter I had to add it to my favourites shelf.
“I don't want to be the girl who freezes when confronted with new friends, or the outside world, or the smallest shred of intimacy. I don't want to be alone in a room all the time. I don't want to feel alone in a room all the time, even when there are other people around.”
When it comes to contemporary once you've read a few it's hard to find one that really surprises you but this book did that for me and I will be reading everything Francesca Zappia writes in the future and also pick up 'Made You Up' soon because that sounds amazing too.
"There are monsters in the sea."
5 Stars
Comments