Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Eliza and Her Monsters

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

64 reviews

rebecca713's review against another edition

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5.0

incredible, amazing, showstopping (read this if you liked Radio Silence)

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stickybuns's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

I think since it's been on my tbr for so long, I was excited and had high expectations of it, so I ended up being a little disappointed. I feel like this book reminds me both of The Fault in Our Stars and The Astonishing Color of After because of similar aspects, but way more lighthearted. It was good I thought the couple was cute, even though I got frustrated sometimes, I think it's a good depiction of the unawareness that people have of themselves and the people around them.

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her's review

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dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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princesa's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Eliza and Her Monsters will always be near and dear to my heart. Niche yet approachable and enjoyable. When I first picked up this book I related to it immensely, from the specific separation of online and in-person entities to the depression that unfortunately bled through both. After re-reading almost four years later, I'm able to genuinely pinpoint my issues with the book besides just blindly giving it a 5/5 for relevance.

Now, even though I resonate with the emotions Eliza feels, I'm less sympathetic to the decisions of Eliza and Wallace towards the end of the book. However, they're both children after all and don't have the emotional intelligence to fully communicate with one another yet. Also, while there are diverse characters they are mostly side characters and don't have much to do with the actual plot of the story. Arguably, it's still appreciated and especially since from the plot standpoint this really does focus on Eliza and her alone.
My final gripe with the story

pertains to her younger brother being a savior in her war with her parents. Though I appreciate the emotional maturity we had yet to learn from this character until this point I don't think it should've been his place to say what Eliza herself needed to say. I'm glad she had someone in her corner to speak up for her though I found this rather unrealistic in most situations.

Despite my few complaints, this is still such a good read with compelling storytelling. Each time Zappia writes to the more intimate moments between Eliza and Wallace, I feel as though I'm reliving the feelings myself. The same giddiness and innocence of being that close to someone for the first time. Not only that, but the passion Eliza has for her work and community online. This is one of those books that's great if you relate to her situation, but even if you don't it's still well-written enough for you to enjoy for what it is.

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so_many_ocs's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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cinderellagirl's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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maya_reads_books's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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neverendingbooklist's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was going to be a five star read for me until the last 30%. This was SO frustrating.

Wallace didn’t go see Eliza to make sure she was okay and to make up, he went to her house because he wanted something from her and never asked if she was okay or noticed that she was depressed and mildly suicidal.... I just can’t get over that, and I didn’t like them together after that, which is so sad because until that point, Wallace was my favorite character!! On another note, Eliza witnessing her brothers standing up for her to their parents was so heartwarming <3

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kit_sheridan's review

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

Warning: Brief spoilers

I first heard about Eliza and her Monsters years and years ago and have always meant to get around to reading it. The premise intrigued me immensely. A nerdy, introverted, creative girl with a secret, super-successful webcomic and the awkward new kid “who is actually a popular fanfic writer of that very webcomic. Golden!

My first impression before even starting the book was that it would probably have a similar vibe as Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, as they are both stories about young female creators learning how to navigate in online spaces as well as their in-person spaces. Whilst I enjoyed Fangirl at the time, I have since come to learn of several issues with Rainbow Rowell and her writing so I was super excited to give a new author a chance.

To start, my favourite part of this book was getting to live through the fantasy of being a successful creator online. I’m sure that many young creatives, from artists to writers to musicians and beyond, have yearned for their big break and the chance at fame, even anonymous fame behind an online persona. The concept of having tens of thousands of people genuinely interested in something you have created would be a dream come true for me. Even with this being said, Zappia makes sure to include the downsides to Eliza’s experience. The pressure of maintaining the quality of an ongoing product while only having a handful of people that she can confide in. Eliza’s character felt incredibly genuine, especially when depicting her mental health and her hesitance to address it. She is a character that has the one thing so many creative people dream of but that doesn’t make her some other-worldly, untouchable person.

In terms of engagement, I loved the first half of the book. I flew through it. I found the kind of awkward but endearing conversations between Eliza and Wallace to be cute and wholesome whilst still coming across as realistic enough to teenage lives.

My critiques with the book came further in, around the halfway point when the conflict started amping up.

It was at this point that the webcomic premise of the book started to take a backseat to the relationship, which I didn’t initially mind until I started to find elements of the relationship I wasn’t that fond of.

Firstly, I wasn’t that surprised by Wallace’s revelation that he had been lying about his past and didn’t find Zappia’s method of revealing this to be as dramatic as it seemed to present itself. From this point forward, I found Wallace and Eliza’s relationship to start to be a bit inconsistent and this all came to a head when Eliza’s secret is revealed to the school. Wallace feels understandably betrayed but I was waiting for a moment where the two talked it out and he came to see what the reader understand, that Eliza was keeping the secret because she felt she had to, not to hurt or mislead him . . . but we don’t get that. We get arguments, where Wallace vents his feelings and Eliza cries and apologises. We get a really sudden but ambiguous makeup scene when Wallace finds her at Wellhouse Turn. The strangest event that kind of put a damper on the whole relationship was after all this, where Wallace starts pressuring her to finish Monstrous Sea so he can get a book deal. I could understand how he felt the need to go for it to help provide for his family but I never quite saw him in the same light after that.

Overall, the ending just really didn’t provide me with any of the closure that I was looking for. Everything had an ending, but not in a way that was wrapped up nicely and felt earned.

A bit of a bad note to leave the book on, considering how excited I was when I was halfway through. At the end of the day, I still think this is a pretty alright book. It has some really fun moments and a great concept that I think could have been better executed.

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lareads_03's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I really loved this book! It was a little juvenile for my taste but it still held my interest and I enjoyed the story itself. It talks about a lot of Mental Health topics most people shy away from. It brings them to light in a very real way. It is also a love story, but above all it is Eliza’s story about finding herself. I absolutely loved every second of it! I cannot recommend enough. TW:This book talks about serious mental health issues. SUICIDE is mentioned multiple times throughout the story!

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