Eliza and Her Monsters is a relatively complex novel that ultimately leaves a reader feeling somewhat unsatisfied at the end of the story.
Eliza and Her Monsters comes out of the tradition of Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl. Not even an emailed press release denies this. Fangirl may not have been the first novel of its kind. However, it did codify that it was okay to write a novel about the nature of fandom. Francesca Zappia’s Monsters comes at it from a slightly different perspective, however.
Her protagonist is Eliza Mirk, the creator of Monstrous Sea — a webcomic that has since spawned the kind of revenue such that Eliza doesn’t really need to worry about college, readers are told — who meets a new boy at school. From there, it’s about relationships, a few revelations, and more. By necessity, this review will have to spoil some things. Consider yourself warned.
On the one hand, Monsters has some pretty accurate portrayals of parts of online fandom. On thee other, it feels as though Zappia has overcorrected for some choices she made for fundamental parts of the narrative. It’s a novel that left me feeling a bit perplexed, so we’ll set it at a good 3/5 stars.
The Good
Zappia writes as if she has grown up in fandom. Considering that said emailed press release also sends you right to her DeviantArt account, this really shouldn’t come as a surprise. This isn’t to say that Internet fandom is some great impenetrable behemoth that older generations can’t write about. Since this book is pretty clearly aimed at teens to young adults, that sort of thing actually matters a great deal. The authenticity easily draws readers in. It shows in simple details like Eliza’s correcting Wallace to how demanding an online community can become.
Additionally, Wallace in particular feels like a particularly well-fleshed out character, perhaps even moreso than Eliza does herself. As a reader learns more about him, they’re more drawn in. It’s strange, because Eliza narrates the entire thing from her own perspective. Then again, there’s an argument to be made that this, too, was a deliberate narrative choice, since the point appears to be that Wallace pulls Eliza back into reality a bit more. However, that argument brings it into “What Makes You Beautiful” territory. Not to knock One Direction, but that song does make such a case for self-deprecation being an always-positive thing.
The Not-So-Good
Another selling point contained in the press release was that Zappia did the artwork present in the novel for Monstrous Sea. She also created The Children of Hypnos, which is also featured as an interest of Eliza’s. (It’s in her author’s biography and everything.) This isn’t necessarily a bad decision. However, it does strike as a slightly odd one, because knowing that Zappia herself created Hypnos and reading how much both Wallace and Eliza enjoy the books ruins the experience a little.
This isn’t to argue that an author can’t toot her own horn or make references to other works or even insert herself into a story. (Dante has Virgil walk him through the underworld in Inferno, so it’s not like there isn’t a literary precedent.)
But it does start to ask the question about why Eliza doesn’t seem to have as many positive traits as she could if she is so closely tied to the works of her creator. Likability isn’t the be-all and end-all, but it does actually matter sometimes. Again, there is certainly an argument that the point is to show people that there is a point to life beyond whatever you make. Zappia pretty transparently makes that argument herself, as in, a therapist almost says that line word-for-word. However, given that Monstrous Sea and the not-actually-fictional Children of Hypnos are also part of Zappia’s oeuvre, it feels like an overcorrection.
The Recommendation
Eliza and Her Monsters feels like it doesn’t cross over to slightly older readers as much as it could. Certainly, as one of those slightly-older readers, I can see the appeal of this book, because it gets Internet fandom. But at the same time, other decisions make it seem less satisfying than it could have been.
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Eliza and Her Monsters is now available.