Review: Eliza and her Monsters

Title: Eliza And Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
Pages: 323
Rating: 5 stars

“You found me in a constellation”

This was one of the most hyped books of 2017. Everyone was talking about how much they had loved it and now I see why. I read this on a cold rainy night when I didn’t feel like doing anything else. I had to put it down sometime after 3am in order to get some sleep but I couldn’t wait to wake up and finish it. This was amazing with so much cuteness just radiating from the entire book.

 This book is about Eliza Mirk also LadyConstellation who is a fade into the background kind of girl but she is also the creator of the most popular webcomics Monstrous Sea. Nobody knows this apart from her family and her two online friends and Eliza likes this just fine. All her friends are online until they are not.  She meets Wallace, a new kid at her school who also loves monstrous sea and they become friends. To say things take a dramatic turn after this is an understatement. You just have to read this in order to see what I mean.


If you are a YA reader you should definitely read this. It brings together the best elements of young adult fiction. In this book the author explores the struggles of being a teenager especially in today’s world. Eliza hates high school and it hates her too. She is a loner and everyone treats her like she is some kind of weirdo even the people she was once friends with. Her parents don’t understand what online friends are and why can’t she just have real ones?

There are also other much deeper topics explored here such as the effects of loneliness, anxiety and suicide. Somewhere at the end Eliza suffers a panic attack and almost falls into depression. For the most part, we get to read more of Eliza’s thoughts. Her anxieties about contact with others, how annoying her family is and how much she loves Monstrous Sea. The difference at the end is that there is more consideration for the people around her. She has more people in her life and she realizes just how lucky she is to have her family.

In between the actual story are some of Eliza’s art and parts of the Monstrous Sea story which reminded me of the Butterfly Project by Emma Scott which is not YA but is just as good. The characters in this book were fewer because Eliza had very few friends. Her online friends were pretty great and Wallace was just too good.

My favorite character was Eliza because I could identify with her at a personal level. Eliza and her monsters is one of the best books I’ve read this year and I can’t wait to read it again.

Ps. That thing with the teacher and the tattoo was a tad too much. Yes Monstrous Sea is awesome, I wish I could read it but that part had me rolling my eyes like seriously.