I’m finally reading a graphic novel that isn’t Saga! Saga has been my entire world for ages, and I was excited to move onto something different. Monstress seemed like the perfect thing to move onto. A badass female character who was an antihero, monsters, Gods and blood and gore everywhere…

Set in an alternate matriarchal 1900’s Asia, in a richly imagined world of art deco-inflected steam punk, MONSTRESS tells the story of a teenage girl who is struggling to survive the trauma of war, and who shares a mysterious psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, a connection that will transform them both and make them the target of both human and otherworldly powers.

Collects MONSTRESS #1-6

Monstress deals with a lot of social issues such as racism, wartime depravity, slavery and PTSD. It’s sometimes hard for authors to get all of those issues into a story, and I feel like Marjorie Liu did it so well, but there were a couple of issues. The story in itself was just so confusing. I genuinely feel like I will have to re-read it a couple of times before I go onto volume two. There are loads and loads of characters within the volume, and it’s hard to keep track of who is who, who is related to what other character, what side they’re on… the list is endless. The world building was just so complex, maybe even too complex for a graphic novel of 192 pages.

The characters were well thought-out, complex and completely filled out. I adored the character of Kippa, I just thought she was so cute and all I want to do is protect from that horrible world; she doesn’t deserve anything of what she’s going through. When it comes to Maika, I have very mixed feelings about her. I don’t know if I like her or not. I know that she’s been through hell and that she’s all about survival, I know that she has this Old God living inside of her, but sometimes, she can be downright rude to people who just want to help her and support her through the whole mess. But maybe this will be part of her character development that will take place over the future volumes.

“There’s more hunger in the world than love.”

― Marjorie M. Liu, Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening

After I finished reading it for the first time, I had a basic understanding of what was going on during the end, and the volume did finish on a major cliffhanger and something that I can’t wait to find out in volume two.

I know that everybody has said this is their reviews of the volume, but the art is just AMAZING! I take my hat off to Sana Takeda because she is just a talented woman who’s artwork is breathtaking. Every single panel has so much detail in it and the colours are gorgeous. The colours reflect the art deco theme that this graphic novel has been labelled as so many times.

Another thing that I absolutely loved about this graphic novel was that it was story completely driven by women, with many of them being women of colour. I think this graphic novel was supposed to be set in East Asia? I can see some reflection of this throughout the story and the artwork but nothing major.

Overall, this is an enjoyable read. It’s very very complex and I definitely need to re-read it, but if you’re looking for something shrouded in mystery, that has old and new gods, powerful women, magic and violence, then this is the graphic novel for you.