A review by simobae
Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

emotional funny reflective sad 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

4.75

I will split my review up into different main points:

Eliza and Wallace
Eliza and Wallace's relationship was simple and sweet. A good display of first love and how to figure out flirting for the first time. I loved, how they both made mistakes and even with the fact that both of them struggled a lot with communication, they both tried to talk with each other about their feelings and respect each other's boundaries.
   
I may be one of the odd ones out but I was happy with their "break up" after the reveal of her identity and Wallace's reaction, even though I agree with many that he was selfish about it. I do believe that they need to work out some of their individual monsters a bit on their own.
 

Eliza and her family:
At this point, I did have some problems with Eliza which is the only reason this was not a 5-star read. Eliza spends a lot of time complaining about her family and how they don't understand her, yet she also doesn't try to understand them. She sees her family as weirdos because they're into sports and she isn't, she sees her brothers as twins because they're a year apart and have similar interests. 
   Even though she spends so much time feeling like her family doesn't understand, she also doesn't try to let her parents understand, she just closes up every time her parents try to let her explain her online life.
   
I loved how her brothers gave her parents a real wake-up call about what they had done when they wrote about Monstrous Sea in the paper and how they did their best at trying to be there for her and showed her how much they loved her.


Ending:
The character development at the end was well-executed and how it showed that it doesn't just happen from one day to the next but that it is work, that we as humans need to keep fighting against our monsters every day, but that we have to remember that we aren't fighting the fight alone. 

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