Eliza and her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

*Trigger warning in this book for anxiety and suicide*

Publication: May 30th 2017 by Greenwillow Books

Goodreads Description:

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. 

My thoughts:

Eliza and her Monsters is absolutely fantastic. It is A new favourite book of all time for me for sure! I was only a few chapters in and I was in love with it. It is a super quick emotional read that I really identified with.

I related to Eliza straight away- I was so happy to be reading about a character who is just like me. I was constantly saying "yes!!! She gets it!!" Her thought process is exactly like mine. I haven't found a character I related to as much as I had with Eliza since I read Fangirl in 2014. It's so wonderful to find a book with a character that 'gets' you. Francesca Zappia took every single anxious feeling I've ever had and somehow took it from my brain and put it in paper. 

I loved how online friendships played a big role in the story as this is not something we see often in books but  is very prevalent in today's world. I loved hoe supportive and helpful Max and Emmy to Eliza and how it showed even though they had never met in real life it didn't mean their friendship wasn't real.

Family is another big theme I loved in the story. Eliza's family are by no means perfect, her parents don't understand her and her two brothers annoy the hell out of her but I loved reading about their relationships. I loved how Church and Scully interacted with Eliza and showed how siblings usually understand each other better than parents do. I loved how Eliza and her parents work through their issues and their relationships are developed at such a nice pace.

Eliza and her Monsters is a super emotional read, especially towards the end. I am not a big crier in general and hardly ever cry at books but this one got me. The story is much darker than you might think it is before reading and deals with some very heavy topics, especially towards the end. 

I loved the illustrations scattered throughout the novel! It was fun seeing Monstrous Sea. I loved the character designs. The illustrations didn't add much to the story but as someone who loves art i really appreciated them. 

I also loved how the story portrayed what it's like to be a creator and how it feels to work on something you love and what it's like when you get stuck and feel like you can't create anymore. 

Overall, I think Eliza and her Monsters is absolutely fantastic and I would highly recommend it! It even made my list of favourite reads of 2017. It definitely lives up to the hype it got last summer.

My rating: 5 stars

Thanks for reading,

A :)