Reviews with content warning for Child death - Awakening

I normally don't read graphic novels because I end up focusing on either the words or the pictures and struggle to put them together into one story. But I made an exception for Monstress because it is just so beautiful.

I actually own this book, and I bought it mostly because of the art. It is incredibly intricate and full of detail, and if you end up focusing on just the pictures for a page or two that's just fine because there's so many things to look at. And it's gorgeous. Steampunk meets art deco with a tinge of manga (several of the character designs remineded me of 90s Shonen anime) and I know I've spent like two paragraphs now harping on this point but I cannot get over how much Monstress is just a treat for your eyes.

It's also very, very dark. There is a ton of gore, death, and blood, torture, and quite a bit of body horror, and all of it vividly depicted in the beautiful artwork. It's not unnecessary, though. This story is about the horrors of war, racial hatred, and how to continue when there is monstrousness inside you.

In an author's note at the end, Marjorie Liu talks about her grandparents' experiences with war in their home country of China and how "in their stories surviving was more horrifying than dying." This story is about how after your survive the horror, you have to pick up the pieces and somehow find a way to live with the trauma. We get to see the trauma of Maika, the protagonist, the most deeply, but nearly everyone in the story is traumatized in some way.

But if you don't feel like relating to the big themes on trauma and monstrousness, there's also magic, talking cats, eldrich horrors, winged people, and a really good story, so you could also just enjoy it as a well-told dark fantasy story. (I think that would be missing the point, but you could.)

The only real criticism I have is that I had a hard time figuring out the world at the beginning. Normally that's not a problem and I pick up on things as I read, but there were so many terms thrown around at the beginning that for a little bit I wasn't sure what was going on. I got the hang of most of it about halfway through, but I'm still not really sure what a Cumaea is. Overall, though, that is a really minor criticism.

Monstress is actually an ongoing comic series, and the "volumes" collect the comic issues into paperback books. There's five out currently and I have no idea how many are planned, but I hope to read every single one of them.

Content Warnings

moonlitgrey's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

filipacarvalho's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

What I appreciate the most about this graphic novel is the absolutely stunning art style. I did feel like the world building and the plot got a bit to convoluted and hard to follow at times. But that being said, I still enjoyed it a lot and the side characters are the best!

Content Warnings