"Lots Of Good Juicy Stuff!"
Review by Sarah (she/they)
Favourite Creators Include:
Super excellent!
It’s a complex story about previously warring factions during a stalemate, with the main character on a personal vengeance/self-discovery mission that’ll probably rekindle the war. Magic, monsters, humans harvesting the life-force of a hybrid race, rebellions, jerks, double-crossers and new alliances, lots of good juicy stuff.
Despite the complexity of the plot and how interwoven the character stories are, there isn’t a lot of exposition, which I love. That does mean that as a reader we’re often on the back foot as we’re given world lore and character backstory piecemeal, but I enjoy gathering those pieces and weaving them together to construct the narrative in my mind. I enjoy how each new piece of info re-contextualises the rest.
I enjoy working for my comprehension, provided all the requisite pieces exist to make it satisfying rather than confusing. I also really love how every piece of information in a story this complicated is working for the narrative. It’s not often pulled off as naturally as Marjorie Liu has done in Monstress. The sense of craft evident means I trust the creators/narrative to give me what I need as I need it. Nice to have that trust rewarded.
AlsooOOOO there’s a talking two-tailed cat who’s always quoting the poets 🤍
Really nice rep too, in disability, diversity and the plight of persecuted peoples.
I skimmed a few goodreads reviews, and was surprised to see there are a lot of 3-star and lower reviews. It seems the stuff I’ve mentioned above — the density of plot and the deft but subtle delivery of exposition — is what other readers find too confusing to be worth the effort. I find THAT confusing, as I was never unsure of where I stood in the story. (Some other reviewers were disappointed it wasn’t more steampunk, and one was disappointed that it wasn’t Saga).
The afterword by Marjorie Liu talks about her Chinese family surviving during wartime, and how horrific an experience that was, and how after the war, they then had to survive being survivors, with all the lifelong horrors that would continue to haunt them. It was really good, really interesting. Monstress has definitely captured that sentiment — the horror of surviving — exceptionally well.
