What I Liked:
- Monstrous Sea! The webcomic itself was so very creative, and I adored the little excerpts from it. That, and the fandom in general was so fun, that how could I not love it? (And if you want more, check out the author's Tumblr for more great drawings and such!)
- Eliza was a great character. She was flawed, but she was learning. She was so relatable, too. It made total sense to me that she'd be worried about having her identity revealed, as she just wasn't a fan of the spotlight. But in making sure her secret was kept, she hurts some people along the way. She grows a lot during the book, which is always great too.
- The other characters were equally great. Her parents and brothers seemed so realistic. Her parents just wanted the best for her, even though they were sometimes making things worse instead of better. They needed to grow just as much as she did, to realize that their way of thinking about things wasn't the same as hers, and sometimes they'd need to change too. And the relationship with her brothers had very authentic ups and downs. I adored Wallace, and I definitely shipped them together. And I liked Eliza's friends (she had met them online), that felt really authentic too. I liked that Eliza's relationships (all of them, not just the romantic one) were such a huge part of her life, and that she had to work to keep them. Again, very realistic.
- Mental health issues are well portrayed. I don't want to go to much into this, because some of the stuff happens toward the end, but I definitely liked that there were no magic cures, and positive depictions of treatment.
- Fabulous writing and pacing as I had hoped! I definitely put Francesca Zappia on my list of auto-buy authors after two incredibly solid books.
What I Didn't:
- This is more of a "me" thing than the book thing, but I am really kind of just over the whole "lie of omission" trope in general. It just frustrates me for two reasons: One, the outcome ends up being quite predictable. And two, you know it is going to end badly and just want the character to tell the damn truth already. Again, this is definitely more of a "me" problem, but maybe some of you feel the same.
- Some of the stuff seemed a wee bit too coincidental, and made me think that the likelihood of certain things happening really small. But it really only bugged me a little bit, it wasn't a huge problem overall.
Bottom Line: I definitely enjoyed this book! It was so fun to read Eliza's story, both as Eliza and LadyConstellation. Her struggles felt very authentic, as did her relationships.