Reviews with content warning for Violence - Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu

82 reviews

growintogardens's review

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adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

The art is so beautiful. The story is a little confusing at times and quite dark.

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sempereadem's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

The artwork is absolutely stunning, but the story is a little dense with complex worldbuilding. Awesome to see a matriarchal society, but the story feels tough to get into, there feels like there's very little to hook the reader other than the art? It takes a couple chapters to actually get into, at least for me it did. I wasn't really into it until about Chapter 5 and even by the end of it, I'm not 100% certain I'll rush out to read the next installment.

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cthulhu_calamari's review

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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

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startjpw23's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This book is a graphic novel. It is the first volume in a series. The story is set in an alternate earth. I can't really place the time it takes place in, but it is fairly modern. There are no mechanized vehicles. But there are guns and airships. The main character is Maika HalfWolf. She is an Arcanic. Arcanics are half human. Maika has a powerful creature inside of her. There is a simmering dispute between Arcanics and humans. There are other races in the book (one is a race of intelligent, speaking 3 tailed cats). The Arcanics and humans are matriarchal societies. The story is told from multiple POVs. There is impressive world building in this book. The story is dark. There are some brutal scenes. The art if beautiful. The characters are complex. This is one of the best graphic novels I ever read. I will definitely be continuing the series. I recommend it to anyone who wants to read a dark graphic novel about an alternate earth with complex characters, multiple races, matriarchal societies, and great world building. Possibly look at content warnings to make sure the brutal scenes wouldn't be too much.

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proudtobeabookaholic's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

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

3.0

Maika Halfwolf is a 17-year-old survivor in the war between humans and Arcnics. In search of her past she becomes both hunter and hunted. At the same time the monster within her starts to awaken.

I've been wanting to read this series for a long time, but now that I've read the first book I'm not sure what I really think about it. It's an unusually complex world building for a graphic novel, so I sometimes had trouble understanding all connections. Maika is also a rather complex character, and I shift between feeling sorry for her and thinking she behaves poorly. I enjoy the steampunk inspired environment and the style of drawing, but I find it unnecessarily bloody and violent. The fact that it takes place in an alternative Asia is interesting, but the question is if it's enough for me to keep reading the series? I honestly don't know.

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