A review by jesspajamas
Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

monstress is a queer steampunk matriarcal fantasy world that Liu and Takeda bring to life with so much beauty and nuance. this series is a challenging read both for the darkness within this story (genocide, warring factions, etc) and for the scale of the world that Liu builds around Maika, the main character.

lots of reviews say that this series is confusing - and i agree that Liu presents the reader with tons of mysteries and questions - but she does a good job of dropping answers and unraveling the history of this world and Maika’s own history over the course of the series.

i picked up Monstress after starting another one of Liu’s series, The Night Eaters, and i’m so happy that i did! if you like queer dark fantasy worlds that basically don’t involve men, i would 10/10 recommend.
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