Book Review: Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

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.

Have you ever read a book where it seems as if the authors have plucked out your innermost thoughts, feelings and fears from you unconscious and put them on the paper for everyone to read and review?

Because THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I FELT WHEN I WAS DONE READING ELIZA AND HER MONSTERS!!

Bear with me please – I am not a creative person; I do not write/draw/create well but what I am a dreamer. I have always been a dreamer, one who has always been more of a fictional person than one who really likes reality.

As I came into adulthood, and especially now that I am married; I need to be around people more than I can ignore the world around me; but there are times, more than I can count; that I have needed to just burrow myself away from people and just fall into a fictional world where I don’t need to actually interact with real human beings; and take away the regrets of the real world.

Eliza and Her Monsters describes that feeling perfectly – it takes every insecurity I have ever had and makes sure that I understand those feelings aren’t wrong but definitely worthy of being who we are exactly as we are.

Never have I ever had these feelings captured as beautifully as the author did in words.

Eliza is an artist and the creator of a fandom; she has created a world that if it had it’s own book, I would have been ALL OVER this fandom (just saying, it’s a big freaking hint Ms. Zappia). She revers in her anonymity and loves the world that she has created is a source of solace for many like her. She does everything she can to make sure that her real life and her virtual life never ever intersect.

That is all shot to heck; when a new boy transfers to her school – Wallace; who loves her fandom almost as much as she does; and he revels in it as well. Soon they are interacting, and he is trying to get her out of her comfort zone believing her to be just one of the many fans of the fandom!

I adored Eliza – she is every fangirl EVER and introvert personified – but she is also the other side of the fandom that we rarely ever think about; the author’s whose words we revel in and love!

And that’s one of the major USP’s of this beauty – that I was able to get a perspective from an author’s/creator POV, for do we, as fans, ever think about the pressure the author could ever be in to appease a fandom and also to their creativity?

Wallace is the perfect book boyfriend – he is imperfect, adorable, is the sweetest guy and yet, could be kind of a jerk when the world slipped from beneath his feet. Yet I loved the way he handled Eliza with care when she needed it!

There is romance of course; but I am so glad that it didn’t overshadow the real issues at play here; which is shows exactly how overrated sometimes romance can be in a young adult books; in books where they need to understand who they are for themselves before they can be anything to anyone else.

This book gets my full recommendation, for it is relatable to anyone who has ever suffered from the phobia of being asked to interact with other humans in reality, when they would rather deal with the fictional characters.