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cthulhu_calamari's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Trafficking, Child abuse, Body horror, Torture, Sexual violence, Gore, Child death, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Physical abuse
Minor: Toxic friendship and Genocide
debatably_relavent's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Monstress is one of about three comics I’ve ever considered myself an unequivocal fan of. I, alas, lost track of things during a hiatus a while back, and got to the point where I barely remembered where I was or what was happening. So, as a palate cleanser between longer books, I’m making it a project for the first chunk of the year to reread this from the start until I’m caught up again.
This is a very high concept series – a matriarchal dieselpunk fantasy world vaguely inspired by 1920s/30s East Asia with a strong art deco aesthetic. The world is divided between the Arcanic Courts – kingdoms ruled by the animalistic ‘Ancients’ and populated by the Arcanic descendants of their half-human children – and the Federation – a human nation-state dominated by witch-nuns who derive their influence from being able to render down the corpses of said Arcanics into magically potent ‘lilium’. Also there are insubstantial projections/ghosts of titanic tentacle-ey monsters that wander across the landscape sometimes. And a genocidal war ended in a stalemate a decade ago after a city was destroyed by something that no one on either side understands. Oh an in addition to the anthromorphic animal Ancients there’s also just normal cats, except they’re sapient and capable of speech and also necromancy. The book really throws you into things and a decent chunk of the first volume is just introducing and establishing the rules of the world.
The actual plot follows Maika Halfwold, an Arcanic who can pass for human except for the giant occult tattoo on her chest. The story follows her abandoning her girlfriend and voluntarily getting herself enslaved and brought to the mansion/mad science laboratory of a powerful witch-nun so she can break out, fight her way through it, and interrogate her at gunpoint for information about the giant gaps in her memory of when as a child her mother worked with the witch on an archaeological dig. Things escalate from there due to a shard of an enchanted mask and an eldritch abomination that had been slumbering with Maika’s body who is awoken by it. The balance of the volume is spent with her, an incredibly untrustworthy cat, and a vulpine arcanic child who she more or less accidentally rescued from slavery as they try to escape the manhunt after them.
So there’s a lot here, and I really do love almost all of it. Most obviously, the art is just gorgeous – I mean, I’m an easy sell on dieselpunk/fantasy 20s stuff, but genre trappings aside the detail and use of colour is just incredible, and even the less detailed panels do an amazing job capturing expressions and emotion. Basically every aspect of character and environmental design is just very deliberate as well – aesthetics reflect character, and scenes are full of little background details that help sell and fill in the world. But fundamentally just very pretty, an aesthetic pleasure to behold.
Of course, one of the things a whole page of artistic flourishing is devoted to is a flashback of Maika – a starving enslaved orphan during the war – eating the stomach of another child who’d died before her to keep herself going. This is a book that just about exults in brutality and brokenness – ‘there is more hunger in the world than love’ is basically the tagline of the entire volume. This is a world on the verge of a genocidal total war, rife with slavery and human sacrifice, and it pulls absolutely no punches about depicting that (so, so many dead children). With, like, one-three exceptions everyone is flawed and compromised and betrays something they care about when their backs are against the wall. You really and truly can’t trust anyone.
You can see this clearly with Maika herself. She’s just, genuinely an incredibly unpleasant person to be around. Responds to feeling unsure or anxious by lashing out, all but incapable of showing affection in any legible way, too wrapped up in her own mountains of bullshit to even notice what anyone around her has going on until it’s shoved right in her face, paranoid and suspicious and more comfortable with violence than uncertainty, has 100% gotten people killed multiple times due to lack of ability to get over her own (mountains, abyssal, soul-crushing) trauma – really the list just goes on. In her defence basically everyone is actually out to get her (sadly the paranoia and suspicion do not in any way actually make her more difficult to deceive or betray). Anyway, I obviously love her, and the supporting cast is very nearly as good.
Just, generally this is not a series where suffering is ennobling – fear and shame and trauma and a desperate need to cling onto what power or privilege you can drive people as much or more as sympathy for or solidarity with others going through the same things they have. The fact that the Federation is run by a bunch of genocidal religious fanatics doesn’t mean the Ancients ruling the Arcanic Courts are good, or even necessarily that they care about the lives of their subjects beyond their own power and pleasure. It could easily tip over the edge into monochrome nihilism, but it actually manages to toe the line very well.
Though like, despite everything I just said, it does do the oddly common modern genre fic thing where there’s brutal unsparing depictions of colonial plunder and oppression but also everyone’s an intersectional feminist. Not as much as some, but the race-war is between humans and arcanics with no one seeming to care on whit about intraspecies ethnicity or race, and the setting is matriarchal in the modern implicit glass ceiling way a modern American corporation is patriarchal, not the way a midcentury warlord state or fascist empire is patriarchal (not that this means there aren’t graphic threats of rape or depictions of what’s clearly sex slavery just that being the one holding the lash isn’t really gendered).
So yeah, overall happy to report that the first volume of this still absolutely and entirely holds up – and considered as a work on its own the first volume really coheres far better than I’d realized when I was first reading this in one mad rush. Very much looking forward to continuing on to volume 2.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Body horror, Genocide, and Cannibalism
Moderate: Ableism and Sexual violence
sup3r_xn0va_maya's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
5.0
Monstress Volume 1 by Marjorie M. Liu is an amazing introduction to a new comic book world. The world building was wonderful, intriguing, and just down right entertaining. The art has been done by Sana Takeda and it's so beautiful, the art style is very "steampunk" and it just brings so much life to the story.
Monstress is the story of Makia, a 17 year old who has grown up around war and she has lost so much. She has a psychic link with an entity inside of her, one that she struggles to control. She sets out on a mission and she ends up traveling/escaping with some friends after she finishes said mission.
This was really entertaining and I had so many questions after the first volume, I'm so excited to dig into the later volumes to see if my questions will be answered. I really enjoyed this comic so I'm giving it a 5 out of 5 stars!
Monstress is the story of Makia, a 17 year old who has grown up around war and she has lost so much. She has a psychic link with an entity inside of her, one that she struggles to control. She sets out on a mission and she ends up traveling/escaping with some friends after she finishes said mission.
This was really entertaining and I had so many questions after the first volume, I'm so excited to dig into the later volumes to see if my questions will be answered. I really enjoyed this comic so I'm giving it a 5 out of 5 stars!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Murder, Slavery, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Torture, and War
theuerma's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Child death, Trafficking, Violence, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Gore, Body horror, Murder, Slavery, and War
jesspajamas's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
monstress is a queer steampunk matriarcal fantasy world that Liu and Takeda bring to life with so much beauty and nuance. this series is a challenging read both for the darkness within this story (genocide, warring factions, etc) and for the scale of the world that Liu builds around Maika, the main character.
lots of reviews say that this series is confusing - and i agree that Liu presents the reader with tons of mysteries and questions - but she does a good job of dropping answers and unraveling the history of this world and Maika’s own history over the course of the series.
i picked up Monstress after starting another one of Liu’s series, The Night Eaters, and i’m so happy that i did! if you like queer dark fantasy worlds that basically don’t involve men, i would 10/10 recommend.
lots of reviews say that this series is confusing - and i agree that Liu presents the reader with tons of mysteries and questions - but she does a good job of dropping answers and unraveling the history of this world and Maika’s own history over the course of the series.
i picked up Monstress after starting another one of Liu’s series, The Night Eaters, and i’m so happy that i did! if you like queer dark fantasy worlds that basically don’t involve men, i would 10/10 recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Genocide, and War
laurenvoice's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Monstress, volume one was fun but intense!
This was way more graphic than expected; nonetheless, it was the perfect read to start the spooky season. I am curious to know what happens next!
This was way more graphic than expected; nonetheless, it was the perfect read to start the spooky season. I am curious to know what happens next!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, and Torture
Minor: Cannibalism, Genocide, Child abuse, Slavery, Physical abuse, War, and Child death
vr_alyssa's review
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
An intricate world with beautiful images. Very curious to see where this leads.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, Violence, War, Genocide, Grief, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, and Blood
nadiaherondale's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I decided to pick this up because the vibes felt similar to Claymore and oh boy it didn't disappoint. The art is amazing and deserves all the awards in the world and I'm liking the story so far. Although I can't in good faith give it a perfect rating 'cause I'm feeling way too lost about the plot and I feel everything is going too quickly, this is still a respectable 4/5.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Blood, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Death, Violence, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Genocide, War, Death of parent, and Body horror
Minor: Ableism and Vomit
jenniferlynnkrohn's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, War, Xenophobia, Blood, Torture, Trafficking, Gore, Grief, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Violence, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Confinement, Child death, Death, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, and Murder
mburnsides's review
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, and Violence
Moderate: War, Suicidal thoughts, and Slavery