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A review by mj_reads
Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
5.0
Eliza and her monsters is a book that will stay very close to my heart. After reading the synopsis I spent the first 20 pages or so comparing this to Fangirl and was worried that this was going to be targeted for a younger audience and lose some of its charm on me. Thankfully this was not the case, as the story picks up and we learn more about Eliza it becomes clear that there is more to her than just rolling her eyes at everything her parents say and being really into her phone. I also have a hard time saying this, because Fangirl is one of my favorite books, but I think that Eliza and her monsters has a lot more depth in it than Fangirl. BUT I’ll get back to that later.
Eliza (aka Lady Constellation) is the author & artist of a webcomic that is like INSANELY popular. But no one knows that it is her besides a her family and her two best friends, who she only knows over the internet. Being in charge of this is the most important thing in her life, and her family and all the kids at school think she’s a bit off because she spends all of her time drawing and none of her time interacting with people face to face unless she is left with no other options. Then comes Wallace, the new boy in school who just so happens to be one of the most popular users on the fan forums for Eliza (known online as LadyConstellation)’s comic. For some reason, Eliza can’t keep herself away from Wallace. They find solace in each other that they both care deeply about the same thing, they both like to express themselves through art (Wallace loves to write), and plus they find each other cute. So they start hanging out and developing feelings for each other, things slowly start to get more serious for them (very slowly because they’re both really awkward and anxious and it is so adorable to watch them start to break down those walls with each other wow) and eventually Wallace really opens up to Eliza, and Eliza still doesn’t tell him who she is.
I think the most important thing to understand about Eliza, at least on a surface level, is that she really loves her privacy. She likes having time to herself, she likes keeping her online life separate from her (for lack of a better term) real life. She doesn’t discuss he online life or her INCREDIBLE success with her family, and she doesn’t seem to open up much about her family or social life with her online friends. So I think that keeping her online persona a secret from Wallace has a lot more to do with her not knowing how to blur the lines between her two lives than anything else.
Fast forward a few hundred pages of Eliza and Wallace being so cute that I couldn’t stop smiling, and BAM LadyConsteallations/Eliza is exposed !!! I’ll keep the details on how and the general reactions from everyone to myself because I think this is a really important part of the book and I’ve already discussed plot a lot more than I usually do. But basically the remainder of the story is everyone dealing with who Eliza really is, and realizing that she was the creator of something so incredible.
SO what is it about this adorable story that makes it so special? What makes it so deep? (told ya I’d come back to this). This story deals with mental health issues. Eliza and Wallace both have them. They both struggle with them, and eventually they both get the help they need. And this isn’t done in a way that results in either of them giving up on what they love. I hate when stories give us characters who use art or fandom as a coping mechanism or as a way to feel better about themselves, and when they start to get help they give up on the things they loved so much. It tends to paint art and fandom in a negative light like oh only people who are mentally unstable or who lack social skills rely on these sort of things. No thank you. Not the representation I’m looking for here. In this story Eliza gets help for her anxiety. She learns more about herself, she opens up to friends and family, and she still does what she loves. Wallace gets help, and it doesn’t change who he is. This story does such a great job of showing readers that mental illness and personal struggles don’t define you as a person. You can get “better” and still hold onto the things you found happiness in when you were feeling down.
This story isn’t all cute all the time. Eliza has dark thoughts, Wallace acts out, her parents misunderstand her and say the wrong things, but I think that is what makes it beautiful. It shows the good, the bad, the comfortableness that is so easily found when you’re struggling and it ultimately shows how things get better. They get better when you already think they’re good, and they get better even when you don’t think they can. There is a lot of very serious material here in this absolutely adorable book. This book caries so much more meaning than I was anticipating. Also okay kinda unrelated but I lowkey think that the title Eliza and Her Monsters has double meaning and that her monsters are both her characters and also her anxiety. Not sure if this is something that other people have discussed but I can’t stop thinking about it.
Now I’m sure there was a lot more that I wanted to say about this book when I first finished it, but I’ve reread my review and I think I got everything important out. This book is cute, it’s sweet, and it is incredibly important. The writing is fun and fast paced, easy to follow along. The art is cute and adds great details to the story. And the secondary characters (Eliza's online friends, Wallace's friends, both of their families) add a lot of fun to the book.
I don’t know if it will touch everyone the same way it touched me. Not everyone relates to books that deal with topics like this the same way, but I do think that this book is worth giving a try either way.
Eliza (aka Lady Constellation) is the author & artist of a webcomic that is like INSANELY popular. But no one knows that it is her besides a her family and her two best friends, who she only knows over the internet. Being in charge of this is the most important thing in her life, and her family and all the kids at school think she’s a bit off because she spends all of her time drawing and none of her time interacting with people face to face unless she is left with no other options. Then comes Wallace, the new boy in school who just so happens to be one of the most popular users on the fan forums for Eliza (known online as LadyConstellation)’s comic. For some reason, Eliza can’t keep herself away from Wallace. They find solace in each other that they both care deeply about the same thing, they both like to express themselves through art (Wallace loves to write), and plus they find each other cute. So they start hanging out and developing feelings for each other, things slowly start to get more serious for them (very slowly because they’re both really awkward and anxious and it is so adorable to watch them start to break down those walls with each other wow) and eventually Wallace really opens up to Eliza, and Eliza still doesn’t tell him who she is.
I think the most important thing to understand about Eliza, at least on a surface level, is that she really loves her privacy. She likes having time to herself, she likes keeping her online life separate from her (for lack of a better term) real life. She doesn’t discuss he online life or her INCREDIBLE success with her family, and she doesn’t seem to open up much about her family or social life with her online friends. So I think that keeping her online persona a secret from Wallace has a lot more to do with her not knowing how to blur the lines between her two lives than anything else.
Fast forward a few hundred pages of Eliza and Wallace being so cute that I couldn’t stop smiling, and BAM LadyConsteallations/Eliza is exposed !!! I’ll keep the details on how and the general reactions from everyone to myself because I think this is a really important part of the book and I’ve already discussed plot a lot more than I usually do. But basically the remainder of the story is everyone dealing with who Eliza really is, and realizing that she was the creator of something so incredible.
SO what is it about this adorable story that makes it so special? What makes it so deep? (told ya I’d come back to this). This story deals with mental health issues. Eliza and Wallace both have them. They both struggle with them, and eventually they both get the help they need. And this isn’t done in a way that results in either of them giving up on what they love. I hate when stories give us characters who use art or fandom as a coping mechanism or as a way to feel better about themselves, and when they start to get help they give up on the things they loved so much. It tends to paint art and fandom in a negative light like oh only people who are mentally unstable or who lack social skills rely on these sort of things. No thank you. Not the representation I’m looking for here. In this story Eliza gets help for her anxiety. She learns more about herself, she opens up to friends and family, and she still does what she loves. Wallace gets help, and it doesn’t change who he is. This story does such a great job of showing readers that mental illness and personal struggles don’t define you as a person. You can get “better” and still hold onto the things you found happiness in when you were feeling down.
This story isn’t all cute all the time. Eliza has dark thoughts, Wallace acts out, her parents misunderstand her and say the wrong things, but I think that is what makes it beautiful. It shows the good, the bad, the comfortableness that is so easily found when you’re struggling and it ultimately shows how things get better. They get better when you already think they’re good, and they get better even when you don’t think they can. There is a lot of very serious material here in this absolutely adorable book. This book caries so much more meaning than I was anticipating. Also okay kinda unrelated but I lowkey think that the title Eliza and Her Monsters has double meaning and that her monsters are both her characters and also her anxiety. Not sure if this is something that other people have discussed but I can’t stop thinking about it.
Now I’m sure there was a lot more that I wanted to say about this book when I first finished it, but I’ve reread my review and I think I got everything important out. This book is cute, it’s sweet, and it is incredibly important. The writing is fun and fast paced, easy to follow along. The art is cute and adds great details to the story. And the secondary characters (Eliza's online friends, Wallace's friends, both of their families) add a lot of fun to the book.
I don’t know if it will touch everyone the same way it touched me. Not everyone relates to books that deal with topics like this the same way, but I do think that this book is worth giving a try either way.