gigireadswithkiki 's review for:

Monstress, Vol. 2: The Blood by Marjorie M. Liu

4.75

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-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: Complicated

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In contrast to the first book in the "Monstress" series, the story arcs featured in "The Blood" felt like the pacing fell heavily into trope of "second book slump", but this wasn't necessarily a bad trait.

This volume felt like a true dive into the backstory of Maika and her mother, the story of their relationship and the uncovering of Maika's motivations for searching through the locations her mother had visited. The arcs explored felt like a larger focus on character study, examining the fraught and tenuous relationship between mother and child, with a mother who viewed her child as a weapon. And amidst all this is the god that lives within Maika, who is re-experiencing these emotions with her, and translates these emotions into their own relationship with the gods that they had once called friend. I really liked the mirroring of their emotional character arcs within this story, set in the backdrop of the mysterious Isle of Bone, allowing for the relationship between Maika and her god to begin to resemble a symbiosis.

Additionally, this story felt like a further expansion of the world-building that had been established in the first volume. Marjorie Liu is so skilled at subtle world-building in the way that she introduces new locations within the world of "Monstress" and then allows the perceptions of the people to formulate concepts about the location. The Isle of Bone was fascinating in it's eerie horror and I loved how Sana Takeda instills a sense of disquieting ambiance into Maika's exploration of the island and it's accompanying residents.

Lastly, I feel like it cannot be understated how well the artwork in this book explores action sequences. Each moving part is accounted for in such a masterfully meticulous manner, allowing for readers to easily follow the flow of action from panel to panel. From masterful world-building to meticulously meted pacing to phenomenally jaw-dropping art in each panel, it's no wonder that this series has won so many awards.