Eliza and Her Monsters

by Francesca Zappia

[Stephanie]

This is really hard to rate, so just give it your own star amount. I loved and hated this book -- Eliza frustrated me so much, and often times came across as overwhelmingly condescending, despite the extreme social anxiety she dealt with throughout the book. At some points, she was cartoonish in her hatred of people and high school. I could relate to her in several instances with her anxiety, but she generally infuriated me.

On top of that (and here is the spoiler-y part), I cringed at Wallace guilting her into finishing the comic so that HE could get the book deal. It was gross, and felt so strangely out of character for him, especially after the email and the reveal of Eliza as LadyConstellation. And it continued, and it persisted, and nothing changed and I. JUST. UGH.

However, the writing was very good, and I was charmed by the various was of multi-media usage in this book (comic pages, IMs, forums, emails, etc.) And I DID like Eliza and Wallace's relationship, through friendship and more. Overall, I was bugged by these couple of things that were so jarring (Eliza's attitude, Wallace's pressure) which took me out of the book to much to wholly enjoy it.

I would place this maybe.. above than Fangirl, but Radio Silence is better.