Book Review:
Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda
Spoilers?
Maybe some.
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By - Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda
Publication - July 19th, 2016 by Image Comics
Format - Paperback, 202 pages
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.
Marjorie M. Liu - (Author)
New York Times bestselling and award-winning writer Marjorie Liu is best known for her fiction and comic books. She teaches comic book writing at MIT, and leads a class on Popular Fiction at the Voices of Our Nation (VONA) workshop. Ms. Liu's extensive work includes the bestselling "Astonishing X-Men" for Marvel Comics, which featured the gay wedding of X-Man Northstar and was subsequently nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for outstanding media images of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Prior to writing full-time, Liu was a lawyer. She currently resides in Boston.
Sana Takeda - (Artist)
Sana Takeda is an illustrator and comic book artist who was born in Niigata, and now resides in Tokyo, Japan. At age 20 she started out as a 3D CGI designer for SEGA, a Japanese video game company, and became a freelance artist when she was 25. She is still an artist, and has worked on titles such as "X-23" and "Ms. Marvel" for Marvel Comics, and is an illustrator for trading card games in Japan.
The Cover:
By nostalgic, I mean that the cover looked like some of the comics my brother used to have and a little like some of the art out of a Final Fantasy art book.
The Story:
This graphic novel is about a girl named Maika that is being sold as a slave to a group of rich powerful men, but then she gets sent to a scientist lady that is doing experiments on whatever slaves they caught in order to harvest their magical energy.
I'm not going to say much more than that as to not spoil the story. But after reading the first few pages I was interested in the story and read until the last page.
Overall:
One of the thing that attracted me to this book was the cover and the quote by Neil Gaiman on the cover. And I'm not interested in everything he does but that quote from him and the cover together made me interested and the very next day I went again to walmart and bought it with some money I had saved up.
via GIPHY
The illustrations in this book gave me some Ghibli feels, specifically from Princess Mononoke. Because of the spirits and the boar monster in the beginning that looks like the monster that is inside of her.
But aside from the Ghibli vibes, it also gave me some nostalgia. Mostly because when I was younger I played my big brothers Final Fantasy games and stuff. And this story had that feel from the buildings, and the worlds and even the creatures are reminiscent of Final Fantasy creatures.
via GIPHY
Most of the pages are filled with illustrations that are detailed and some that are gruesome. The colors go from dark/blueish to lighter pages that have yellows and oranges; like golden even. But the entire book gives off this 'rainy day' tone to it.
I'd say that even if this is full of dark and gruesome bits and it even goes to 'f*cked up' levels, I would love to continue to read the rest of this series.
The illustrations are awesome, the characters are well created and it's so strange and different from what I've been reading recently that it is easily one of my favorite reads of the year. Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda are awesome and kickass creators.
Although they say never judge a book by it's cover I believe the cover should represent what the book is going to be like or at least some aspect of it.The cover was what made me pick it up and eventually buy it. I think that if I hadn't seen the really nostalgic looking cover I wouldn't have gotten to see that this really cool graphic novel was there amongst Superman and Batman comics.
By nostalgic, I mean that the cover looked like some of the comics my brother used to have and a little like some of the art out of a Final Fantasy art book.
The Story:
This graphic novel is about a girl named Maika that is being sold as a slave to a group of rich powerful men, but then she gets sent to a scientist lady that is doing experiments on whatever slaves they caught in order to harvest their magical energy.
I'm not going to say much more than that as to not spoil the story. But after reading the first few pages I was interested in the story and read until the last page.
Overall:
One of the thing that attracted me to this book was the cover and the quote by Neil Gaiman on the cover. And I'm not interested in everything he does but that quote from him and the cover together made me interested and the very next day I went again to walmart and bought it with some money I had saved up.
via GIPHY
The illustrations in this book gave me some Ghibli feels, specifically from Princess Mononoke. Because of the spirits and the boar monster in the beginning that looks like the monster that is inside of her.
But aside from the Ghibli vibes, it also gave me some nostalgia. Mostly because when I was younger I played my big brothers Final Fantasy games and stuff. And this story had that feel from the buildings, and the worlds and even the creatures are reminiscent of Final Fantasy creatures.
I'd say that if you like the more fantasy side of Ghibli, old school Final Fantasy, and even Saga then you'll like this graphic novel.
via GIPHY
Most of the pages are filled with illustrations that are detailed and some that are gruesome. The colors go from dark/blueish to lighter pages that have yellows and oranges; like golden even. But the entire book gives off this 'rainy day' tone to it.
I'd say that even if this is full of dark and gruesome bits and it even goes to 'f*cked up' levels, I would love to continue to read the rest of this series.
The illustrations are awesome, the characters are well created and it's so strange and different from what I've been reading recently that it is easily one of my favorite reads of the year. Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda are awesome and kickass creators.
