To start off the new year, I've started reading some of the books on my to-read list. The first book I read was "Eliza and Her Monsters" by Francesca Zappia. At first, I was really interested in the premise of this book: Eliza Mirker is a teenager who also happens to be the author of the most popular webcomic called "Monsterous Sea." She's trying to keep it secret, but the most popular fanfiction writer in the fandom happens to move into town and sit next to her in class. She tries to keep it a secret.

I was really interested in the synopsis, but after reading, I felt kind of let down by it. I have a thing where I have expectations based on the synopsis of a book, and sometimes I feel disappointed if it misleads me. Fair warning here, this review is going to be full of spoilers from this point on.

I was expecting to see a lot more of internet relationships and fandoms explored in this book. As someone who relied heavily on the internet in middle and high school for entertainment and friendship, I thought it was really cool to see how Eliza had online friends and did stream chats with her fans. I loved that I could relate to that, and to the fact that Eliza would lose herself in her own world she created.

But it felt like most of this book, Eliza was ignoring her online fanbase and friends for Wallace. I got that she didn't want to read the comments for her own sanity, but I was curious to learn more about her two online friends. I was curious about the online aftermath when her identity was revealed.

Also, the fact that her being revealed as LadyConstellation doesn't come until over halfway in the book was disappointing to me. I was kind of expecting that to happen maybe halfway so there would be more time for Eliza and Wallace to mend their relationship and to see more of the repercussions this had on her life (on and offline). It made the resolution they had together seemed rushed and messy, especially with Wallace's gross behavior at the end.

I wasn't 100% convinced that the scenario of this story was realistic. I wasn't convinced that a webcomic written by a high schooler would be as popular of a level as Monstrous Sea was. I'm not saying the content of Monstrous Sea isn't good enough (I think it's cool and I hope that Zappia is writing a book about those characters!) and that high schoolers can't produce quality stories. What I'm saying is that webcomics typically are not famous on the level of being widely known to the public.

"Monstrous Sea" was so popular that lots of people in Eliza's small town knew about it. I've read quite a few webcomics online that are really popular, but if I were to mention them to people I talked to every day (like a homeroom teacher) they would have no clue what I was talking about. I could see her being internet famous, but I wasn't convinced there were fans of her comic literally everywhere, including in her small-town high school.

The internet is a big place, so it's a little too coincidental. I think it would be more interesting to have seen this story through online relationships. Like, if Eliza decided to be more active on her MirkerLurker account because she didn't want the pressure to be LadyConstellation all the time, and started bonding with Wallace through their online accounts. BUT, I will acknowledge that this IS fiction, so it's okay that it's not 100% realistic.

Lastly, I was confused about how I was supposed to feel about her family in the end. Eliza kind of ignored them and treated them like burdens the whole time. I did think it was interesting to explore how her parents didn't understand the level of her fame and have her brothers stand up for her. It really shows the difference in a generation that didn't grow up with the same level of access to technology. But I honestly didn't know if I was supposed to see them as antagonists or not because I really hated how Eliza treated them.

Every scene with them she exploded at them for trying to talk to her. Like, I get that she was frustrated that they didn't understand her relationships with people online--I can relate to that--but the fact that she wouldn't spend any time with them and get MAD at them when they tried to get her offline? That's just as unhealthy as spending all your time outside your house with your friends and then treating your family like trash. I think in the end their relationships got better, but I think the ending was too rushed for me to tell.

Overall, this book was entertaining and I got through it really fast. Totally started the new year finishing this book. I know I mostly typed about what I didn't like about this book, but I guess because this book was probably about a 2.5/5.