Eliza and Her Monsters – A Book Review

Hey y’all!

I have recently finished this book, Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia, and I must say, I highly suggest everyone read this book. I discovered this book from YouTube, from Janenine from Thisstoryaintover. I was intrigued because it’s a story that dealt with a shy and introverted character who wrote a comic. She also mentioned that the book dealt with mental health, which if you know me, you know I’m all about mental health awareness. Needless to say, I was excited to read this book!

Synopsis

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the widely popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea‘s biggest fan fiction writer, transfers to her school and draws her into a life offline she never could have imagined. But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she built–her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity–begins to fall apart.

Review

I loved it. Like some people said that they cried when they read it, I didn’t but by the end I definitely had a goofy smile on my face. It was so good. I loved Eliza like I can see myself in her. We’re both shy and we both have this separate life that our family don’t really know about. Plus, she had anxiety! Now as I was reading, I didn’t really notice anything “wrong” with her until the point when her parents sent her to therapy for anxiety. At that point, I was like oh lol. I guess I didn’t notice it because thats how I dealt with things.

I definitely understood where she came from with wanting to have a secret life. It’s something I had to worry about when I wrote my first book. When I was getting it published, my friend asked me if I wanted to use my pen name or my real name. That was such a tough position to be in because well, I couldn’t hide who I was anymore. Ultimately, I went with my real name and so I understood why she wanted to keep that other life a secret. Also, it’s easier to correspond online and as someone who hates public speaking, I’d rather much write to express myself.

I will give the warning that this book deals with mental health and suicide so that’s my trigger warning out there. Be aware of the topic of suicide. They dealt with the topic of mental health in a beautiful way. So far, the different aspects of mental health in the book were PTSD, Anxiety, and Suicide. With Eliza’s experience with anxiety and Wallace’s PTSD, I love how open this book was about it and I’d definitely recommend for any teen or adult who deals with any of those disorders.

The only thing I didn’t like was the romance. Don’t get me wrong, the were super cute and I was happy for them. But they got into a relationship pretty quick and I don’t know I feel like you have to know someone more before you hop into a relationship with them. Then again, they were teenagers so maybe thats why it happened so quickly.

All in all, I give it a 4.5/5. It’s a really good book. I got my copy from Amazon but I’m pretty sure you can find it at Barnes & Nobles or your local bookstore.

What book should I read next?

XOXO,

LolaDasher

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