A review by thecolourblue
Monstress, Book One by Marjorie Liu

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Fantastic comic series. Absolutely perfect art, just amazing. Great characters, great world-building, great moral ambiguity and willingness to let the protagnist express hurt and rage and destructiveness without becoming someone you stop rooting for.

Book One collects Volumes #1-3 (Awakening, The Blood, Haven) / Chapters #1-18

Volume One: Throws us right into this world. Instantly brutal - there's slavery and child sacrifice, plus war, massacres and very literal monster. Sets up the political factions of the world without needed exposition dumps. I love the developing dynamic between Maika and the monster in her body.

Volume Two: Kippa shows what an important source of unconditional love they are for Maika. More of Zinn's backstory is revealled, and they become a more interesting - potentially even heroic - character in their own right. The majority of the volume is focused on the groups travel to the Isle of Bones, which is just outstanding art.

Volume Three: The world gets more complex as we learn more about the history of our characters. I'm fully fully invested. Not entirely sure why Tulya is making some of the choices she is - the exact timeline of Maika and her backstory doesn't quote make sense to me yet.
The group travel to Tear Shed, and island refugee camp in the "safe" territory of Poitius. Corvin is back to ...maybe help? Maika tries to deal with the Poitius powers-that-be, and royally fucks shit up. There's a giant god battle and it's epic. Zinn has feelings.


I'm resisting the urge to binge read this whole series without sleep.