The artwork is beautiful and really helped to set the overall tone of the book. There was a lot happening with the story and backstory so it could feel a bit overwhelming at times. However, the plot is very intriguing and the characters stood out with their definitive voices. I am in love with the Asian influence and steampunk/dystopian vibes.

The artwork in this series is stoning. I love the Asian/Western steampunk kind of vibe too it. Interesting writing. I enjoyed the series.

A lushly illustrated story with equally compelling storytelling. It was so refreshing to see a disabled lead and to see a disabled body treated with reverence rather than regulation. Absolutely gorgeous and spellbinding. I’m excited to continue with the series.

5 Stars!

Innovative, exhilarating, fascinating!

Wow! Monstress was so so good. I hardly know where to start. The world building was extraordinary, rich and in depth. The author did an amazing job of creating an already established world in the beginning and you’re coming without feeling lost, and the myriad of details are revealed as it progresses- which only serves to enrich this vastly layered universe.

Maika Halfwolf leaps off the page! She’s such an enigma at first and kept me reading for hours. Maika is flawed with a gripping backstory and a helluva future that she’s unable to deny. Her path pushes her and I was there for every moment! The plot never lagged. The supporting characters round out the plot with their distinctive personalities and emphasize different aspects of Maika as she evolves.

Monstress was such a breath of fresh air in the vein of Dark Fantasy. There is blood and darkness and yes children\people being eaten. Some people were put off by this, but it’s part of the world the arcanics live in. And this IS dark fantasy. The best fantasies highlight the worst of human nature as a stark contrast to those attempting to overcome it. There is blood and there is horror in this story. I wasn’t out off by it, but others might be.

I have zero complaints about Monstress. I read the Deluxe edition Vol 1 and will be getting the next volume that releases in October of 2019.

I read the sampler of this ages ago and liked it. I really wanted to read more but the download got lost when i swapped my kindle, based on the original sample I'm giving it 4 stars.

Monstress is amazing. The first thing I noticed is the art. It is so intricate and detailed. The artist, Sana Takeda, is an obvious genius. The art is like nothing else in comics.
The story is darker than I expected and centers on war and the atrocities people commit against one another. This comic is very violent and is not for children in spite of the cutest little kid animal characters. The story is intricate with several mysteries intertwined with trauma and PTSD, so I have to be in the right mood to read it.
I do appreciate that all of the main and most of the side characters are women, and it's very different to have women shown as so physically violent on the page.
Monstress is not for everyone, but if you like beautiful images tied to a dark and tragic story, Monstress may be for you.

THE ART! Wow, this was really gorgeous. The cover immediately had my attention and I've been wanting to read it for some time now. Not sure what was stopping me, but we're in it now. From the first page there's a ton of info and backstory thrown at the reader. It gets confusing and hard to follow so I just ended up going with it with hopes it would all click into place down the line. It never really did for me. I'm still missing some key elements here which I guess is a good reason to continue... The middle lost my attention a bit too. It didn't seem like much was helping propel the story forward. Again with the info dump, but the good news is that it picked back up. Things get really interesting. And dark. These steampunk vibes ended up working really well for MONSTRESS as did the cliffhanger. I'm intrigued and may need to sit with Vol. 2 to see whether I continue with the rest of the series or not.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Image Comics for providing me an advanced reader’s copy of “Monstress Volume 1: Awakening”. As I was not able to review this book on time, I purchased the retail copy for reading and reviewing.

Before I even get to the story, I have to compliment that artwork! Firstly, the illustrations are simply breathtaking and out of this world! The amount of details and colors selected on each panel is just flawless, and I was staring at each of them in detail before proceeding with the story. I have never heard of Sana Takeda but I truly loved her work in this book and have become a fan.

Secondly, the characters are beautiful, distinctive, weird and very entertaining to read. Even after reading the book, I am not sure if some of the characters are truly good or bad. I loved Maika and thought she was awesome! Also, some of the villains are completely devious and you don’t know how they will react. I fell in love with Master Run and Kippa as they support Maika on her quest. Moreover, Kippa is so adorable and adds the love and cuteness to this otherwise very serious book.

While the book is engrossing, I felt the story progressed too fast. Mainly, the plot is a bit confusing and I had to go back and re-read a few pages to keep track of what was happening. Even after reading this book, I am still a bit confused with a few characters and their background stories as quite a few of them are left open-ended for the following volumes.

But overall, reading Monstress was memorable experience, and was a treat for the eyes with its amazing illustrations! Bear in mind that some scenes are pretty violent and graphic.

Monstress is a gorgeous comic book/graphic novel centering women. It's been a while since I read it so I can't say much specific, other than I had a few concerns about depiction of disability but otherwise it was a fabulous experience.

The artwork was just phenomenal, but the story was a bit thick to read through. While the world building was necessary and well done, I have spoke to people that found it hard to get into the story because they couldn’t keep track of everything happening in the story.

I received this graphic volume through NetGalley for a honest review.

This is an interesting Egyptian story of witches and war. I really liked the way that the art was as dark as the story. It really helped in understanding the tone of the scenes. If I was in a mood for something so serious as this story, I would probably rate this a little higher.

This is one comic you don’t want miss. Stunning art, an intriguing plot and fascinating world all combine into one addicting series about the monsters within

I love this series. It is so fascinating, and the art is incredible. I am glad the series is still going and will keep reading!

It was good! i like the world as well as the characters.
And beautiful art!

This collection, Volume One of Monstress, is fantastic. The artwork and story work seamlessly to build a unique and well-developed world. As an avid fantasy reader, I was very happy to see the cultural and political world-building in this collection. Graphic novels, (in my albeit limited experience) often allow the art to stand in for complete narrative development, often to the detriment of the story. Monstress, however, really delivers. Steampunk meets high fantasy in this tale of a dystopian realm where the made battle the born for freedom and equality. Like many other stories making the rounds, this one features a heroine upon whose shoulders lies the weight of countless lives, those already taken and those in danger of being taken too soon. In the post-war lull, where an uneasy peace maintains a border. Maika, an Arcanic, does not want to save anyone. Her mission is vegeance, yet when confronted with the immediate suffering of her  fellow prisoners, she takes up the torch and, though vengeance is served, and so very satisfactorily, Maika finds a better path to walk, fighting to save, at least a few of her fellow Arcanics.  Like any well designed beginning, this first volume sees Maika take her revenge, save children from a life of eugenics-based experimentation and torture, and discover a long hidden family secret. Then, as a final twist, a classic cliffhanger, we are offered a glimpse of the imprefection of our heroine, her driving need, her sliver of evil against which she fights so hard...

An absolutely amazing beginning, I cannot wait (literally, I've already purchased it) to continue on this journey, to see what other ingenuity comes through in the next volume.

It was lovely! http://www.fangirlhappyhour.com/2016/06/24/fangirl-happy-hour-episode-47-tiger-blowjobs/

I received a free copy of this for review from NetGalley **

The artwork in this is amazing and the story line is really intriguing. Already bought the hard copy and cannot wait to continue and display these on my shelves.

Monstress is a masterpiece. For anyone who likes monster girls, art deco steampunk or incredible artwork.

Dark and mysterious it instantly pulls you in and leaves you wanting more

The art work is so beautiful I would get stuck staring at pages

Again I would recommend a physical copy since it was a little difficult to read on my tablet

A highly original story cant wait for more highly recommend

This was a very different experience than what I usually get from comics. For one, the art was much, much better than one typically sees, and it stayed consistently good throughout. The world was much more unique and fresh than a lot of comics or fantasy fiction in general that I come across. It was also nice to be treated as an intelligent reader who doesn't need their hand held-- the world is vivid and alive and doesn't slow down to explain itself to you. The main characters were interesting, particularly the heroine whose darkness literally cannot be held at bay.
I did question the cat characters, however. They seemed too light and silly in many ways to fit in with the otherwise grimdark world. They felt more like the obligatory small animal sidekicks you so often see in mediocre anime series rather than something that was organic to the world. I just felt like the writer or artist just has a thing for cats, not that their inclusion was actually right for the story.