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Review: Eliza and Her Monsters

Eliza and Her Monsters Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is about me when I was in junior high Eliza Mirk, an internet hermit who has an insanely popular webcomic. Internet friends > in-person friends, am I right, fellow kids!?

The people who love this book feel that way because they were able to intensely relate to the main character. The people who don't like this book feel that way because they disagree with her lifestyle and reading about it made them frustrated. I'm finding it extremely difficult to decipher my own feelings towards this book because I am somehow simultaneously on both sides of this coin.

When I was younger I was EXACTLY like how Eliza is in this book: A total internet hermit who spent all my free time in my room hanging out with my online friends who I largely considered to be my best—and for the most part my only real—friends. I was also super into art, and whenever I wasn't hanging out online I was drawing. I was even super into reading webcomics! I never made my own webcomic, but I had been writing and drawing my own books, series, and comics literally as far back as I can remember. The relatability with Eliza was real. Key word: was. And I think this is where my problem emerges.

I feel like this lifestyle of hiding away in my room and staying on the internet all day played a large part in my underdevelopment socially, emotionally, and maturatively. This is something I noticed too late, but I still eventually made an effort to distance myself from this thing that I new was harming me. The me that I am now is very different than the me I was and than Eliza Mirk.

I very much agree with the people who say that her’s is a terrible way of living, however I found myself very easily and intensely relating to Eliza regardless. Normally that's a great thing, and largely enhances one's enjoyment of a novel, and yet I only found myself feeling confused and unsure of my actual feelings towards this book. I am the people who love this book, and yet simultaneously the people who hate this book. I have been and yet still am both types of people.

Honestly, even more than that, I think this also felt kind of weird because it felt like I was reading about myself when I was in junior high. It brought about a sense of nostalgia as it reminded me of my childhood, which in turn also brought both good and bad feelings at the same time. It made me feel simultaniously connected yet disconnected. It felt strangely personal, which is why this review has been all about "me me me" so far. Whoops.

I really only have two actual comments on some technicalities with the book itself, because like I said, I'm still not sure what to think about the story. My comments are in regards to the art, go figure. (Because I am art, you get it.)

In the beginning I found myself loving that we actually get to see Eliza's drawings, and I felt so envious that she has a super popular webcomic. That's literally every internet (comic) artist's dream come true. Except my pessimism couldn't help but constantly remind me at the back of my mind how unrealistic the whole thing is, of her comic being as insanely popular as it was described. Eliza's comic is literally as much of a household name as "The Hunger Games", for example. For a random webcomic to be that good... Sorry, not buying it. The closest connection to reality is Homestuck, but even that is a far cry from being remotely as big as Eliza’s.

I found it weird how the author describes Eliza's art as being super good and high quality and whatever, when in reality it's honestly pretty shit. There is one drawing of a dragon that's good but everything else is very middle school quality. Eliza always talks about not doing lazy pages and always keeping the quality "high", but it honestly felt like the drawings included in the book only got lazier and shittier looking as they went on, and they even stopped being in colour.

Okay those were my picky art critiques that no one else (that I've seen) has also picked up on which means I just need to shut up.

I don't even know how to conclude this review. I'm still confused about this book. Ack.


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