Eliza and her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

Summary from Goodreads:

Her story is a phenomenon. Her life is a disaster.

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.

Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.

But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.

Review:

I’ve read so many positive reviews for this book. And I’ve always loved the sound of the plot. I knew I’d get to this book eventually. I actually saw it left behind on a table in a bookstore when I was in Chicago. So, of course I picked it up, totally planning on being a librarian nerd and finding it’s rightful home on the correct shelf….but then I read the beginning, and before I knew it, I was standing in line with it and couple of other books.

I devoured this book. I read it in two sittings (one day). I super related to Eliza. I loved reading a fresh perspective on fandoms (the good and the bad). I’m also in a relationship with someone who has an anxiety disorder, and I couldn’t help connecting Eliza to him, and feeling even more emotionally involved than is typical for me. And then of course there’s the awful thing her parents did. And it was like someone stabbed me in the heart and twisted the knife around for hours. I had all the feels.

I thought this book tackled so many important and under-discussed topics in YA. Number 1 being the internet. There’s a huge disconnect between Eliza’s generation and her parent’s generation and what amounts to an acceptable amount of time on the internet. As becomes abundantly clear right away, Eliza isn’t just messing around and watching cat videos. All her friends are online. But, also, so is her gigantic, profit making business and webcomic that generates millions of views.

I like that there is a line though. Even Eliza’s closest online friends were like, “It’s not normal to forget about Christmas.” She totally forgot about Christmas while working on her webcomic. And that goes into another thing not often talked about: appeasing fans. She has mantras she recites all the time to never read comments. She works so hard to provide high quality material every week and be in the same chats every week because her fans expect it. At the same time, she’s a student, a daughter, a sister, and an artist. One of my biggest loves about her seeking therapy toward the end of the book is that she finally has someone telling her that she needs to do what’s right for her –not her fans.

I was a wreck after her parents did the thing. And then I was more of a wreck when her brothers stood up for her. And then I was even more of a wreck when she fights with Wallace and he doesn’t forgive her as fast as he should. Like, I was sobbing into my pillows for a while…and had to collect myself before my boyfriend came home and would think someone died.

The book was a lot darker than I was expecting it to be. It tackled the tough topics of: depression, anxiety, and even suicide. There’s also a lot of family drama, first love stuff, and plenty of awesome geeky things too. There’s a cosplay Halloween party and lots of little snip bits of Monstrous Sea (the webcomic) layered throughout the novel.

I also loved Eliza. She’s such an amazingly good person, even if she doesn’t see herself that way. I mean she forgives her parents! She forgives them rather quickly, before they even know what they did. She sees where she messes up and apologizes for it. She tries to be there for those around her. I loved her.

I give this a 10/10. I’m already thinking about re-reading it. That’s how you know a book is amazing –when you are already daydreaming about reading it again. I hope this author writes more.