Eliza and Her Monsters || hands down one of my favourites of 2017

Title: Eliza and Her Monsters

Author: Francesca Zappia

Genre: YA contemporary

Status: Standalone

Synopsis:

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.

OKAY SO THIS BOOK WAS ADORABLE AND AMAZING.

The Plot

We have Eliza who’s an artist and is the creator of Monstrous Sea, a comic series online. She goes by a pseudonym so no one in her real life knows. Not even her family. And Monstrous Sea is REALLY popular so if her identity does get out, it’ll blow up.

So while Eliza continues to navigate her sorta lonely life at home and school, a new guy comes to school. Turns out Wallace is also one of the most popular fanfiction writers for Monstrous Sea. Soon, Eliza and Wallace strike up a friendship, and it becomes more.

In this novel we not only see a teenage love story but also on how the internet world is rewarding as well as frightening. Eliza’s fans always support her but when she slacks a little, it becomes a HUGE issue and she works harder than ever to deliver. To the point where she’s holed up in her room all day drawing.

That computer is my rabbit hole; the internet is my wonderland.

The Characters

I LOVED ELIZA. She was so relatable. She’s imperfect, just trying to get through one day at a time by losing herself in her brainchild. She feels left out in her family because she’s the only one not athletically inclined and she’s also bitter that her family don’t try to understand her art better. She’s also pretty recluse and I relate to her so much.

Is it too much to ask that no one speak to me in the morning?

I have mixed feelings about Wallace. On one hand, I LOVED him when he was introduced and I really liked his relationship with Eliza. But later in the book I really hated something that he did and I could NOT get on with the “happily ever after” ending. He was being selfish and I basically just hated him then.

The things you care most about are the ones that leave the biggest holes.

I understood Eliza’s family? They did ignore her for a long time but they didn’t understand her, that’s all. I like that they tried. They’re an imperfect family trying to navigate waters to each other. I liked that.

The Romance

I really liked Eliza and Wallace’s relationship. Until I started hating Wallace.

They were really adorable and cute. I totally shipped them. I honestly wish there was an alternate writing for that ending because I JUST DON’T LIKE WALLACE ANYMORE, OKAY? And I’m sad about that!

Overall

I still gave it five stars because I LOVED Eliza and everything about her. I thought about taking down a star because of Wallace but I’m letting that go.

I recommend this book to all YA lovers, if not everyone in general.