This review is for volume 1 as a whole.

Warnings: violence, gore, cannibalism, slavery, body horror, torture, concentration camps, severe burns to one character, fatmisia.

Takeda's art and character design is absolutely breathtaking, like if Alphonse Mucha drew visions of a fantastical, steampunk future. Visually it's an absolute pleasure to read, and the image of the ghosts of massive, eldritch gods floating unseeing above the world will stay with me a long time. I'm almost tempted to raise the rating to four stars on the basis on the art alone.

This world is not homogeneous, there's a lot of diversity in terms of race, among humans and ancients, and there's an f/f relationship between two side characters. However, of the three fat characters presented, one is horrendously evil, they and one other die horribly, and the third is lovely but not treated well because she helps the main character. I could have done without that kind of fatmisic violence. Pretty much everyone else in the comic is ethereally tall and slim.

The story is interesting, but does not have enough exposition for my taste. I did get some of the answers I was looking for by the end of the volume, but it didn't feel like enough – and I wasn't terribly invested in what happens next until the last two issues.

This volume isn't enough to make it a favourite series, but maybe the next one? Monstress certainly has all the makings of an amazing fantasy series, and almost every element of this is something I usually love, so we'll see.

3.5/5.

Monstress caught my eye because of the absolutely gorgeous art! I didn't fall in love with the first volume however. I will say that it was intriguing enough a concept that I did purchase and read the second volume. I am glad I did, as volume 2 is so much better than volume 1. Volume 1 has action, but it is not nearly as exciting as volume 2.

I got an ARC of Monstress from Netgalley when the first volume, Awakening, came out, and I immediately sat down an read the first five issues straight through. It's rich, dense, lush, and challenging, with incredible worldbuilding, powerful characters, gorgeous artwork, and incredible adventures.

But the tension was so much that I got overstimulated and put it down. This happens to me a lot, especially with the best stuff--when I watch movies by myself and they get exciting, I almost always pause the video to get up and walk around. When I'm reading, I often switch from book to book when things get to exciting in the one I'm absorbed in. I hit my stimulation threshold--especially for the good stuff--really fast.

This was a stupid thing to do, though, because Monstress is amazing. The art is by Sana Takeda, and it is lush and rich and intricate. The story is by Marjorie Liu, and it's harsh and beautiful. I've read that the two do not share a language, and that their collaboration involves interpreters. I can't imagine what goes into producing even one issue of something so complex.

The worldbuilding is complicated enough that I was confused at times, but only in the way that you can just read past. It took a while to get the hang of who is on what side in the war, partly because there are species that look the same and partly because of the factions and betrayals going on. Basically, though, it's the humans vs. the part-animal Arcanics, and the Arcanics have been beaten, enslaved, and harvested for a magical substance that their bodies produce, in particular by a certain religious cult.

Maika, our main character, had been captive, but was living in freedom with her best friend, Tuya, before going back behind enemy lines for information that she couldn't get any other way. She wants to know the details of what happened to her mother, and she finds some answers, more questions--and an artifact, a mask that connects her to a horrifying creature. It fills her with power--and hunger. Her enemies are in danger, but so are her friends.

This book. I'm not the first one to tell you this book is incredible, but this book is incredible. Everyone is hungry for something--safety, power, memory--and everyone has their own agenda. It's so easy to get caught up in the more notable amazing things--the world is populated by women! the art is absolutely incredible! the monster, the terrifying monster!--that it's easy to overlook the subtle wonderfulness of the storytelling--Maika's confusion about the right path; the unwavering goodness of Kippa the fox girl; all the people facing complicated moral choices and making the ones you might not have expected.

Best comic I've read in a year, I think--and it's been a pretty good year.

This book tells the story of a fantasy world ruled by women. There are humans and Arcanin (non-human beings that can have different appearances).

The art is stunning, it features beautiful backgrounds and breathtaking eyes.

This book’s cast of characters is diverse and every single one of them is interesting.

The story is great, it’s intriguing and dark.The ending was amazing, it made me need to pick up the following issue.

I highly recommend this book to fantasy loving readers, even to those who usually don’t read graphic novels.

Wonderful art and concept. I liked how the flow of panels was not impeding understanding of the plot. Definitely curious to see where this is going.

I originally received this from NetGalley (thank you) but had SO much trouble with the software required to read graphic novels that I gave up and bought it. I struggled to rate this and I rated it more on how well I thought it was written and drawn vs how much I liked it, which was a little less. It's a bit too dystopian for me (I'm over dystopias entirely really).

There is no argument on what to rate the art. That's a five. The art is lush and downright gorgeous for all its dark subject matter. It does a lot with a muted color palette. The cover has a rather steampunk feel but there are really only a few panels inside that seem steampunky. This is more straight up fantasy which I love.

I didn't, however, love the main character or even like her. However, I'm not sure we're meant to like Maika Halfwolf. She is in the middle of a long war that's quieted but ready to burst forth again and her people, the strange, half animalistic arcanics aren't likely to fare well. She's the product of war and as mistrustful, violent and unpleasant as you'd expect her to be. She's not particularly likeable but she IS very believable. I'd believe this hard young woman far more than a Pollyana.

Maika has allowed herself to be auctioned off as a slave to the witch-nuns who rule the human world, trying to find out information about herself and the monstrous thing inside her. If she rescues some of her kind in the process then fine but it isn't her main goal. She's too closed off emotionally to care (and later someone takes her to task for being selfish in her goals as it puts others at risk).

After Maika goes on the run with only some answer, even more questions and the monster-old god growing inside her, she learns she might not have friends anywhere, not even among her own kind.


It's hard to sum up the story. Do I want to see more? Yes, I think I do because it IS well written and beautifully drawn. But it is also dark and violent (and there is some nudity for those who think graphic novels equates to little kid stuff, think again. Maika's favorite word is fuck.). If you're looking for strong women, look no further. I think there's like 2 men in the entire thing and one of them, for the brief time we saw him, might be the nicest person in this thing because none of these women are nice. They are aggressive, power hungry and ruthless, the whole lot of them, except maybe the little fox girl, Kippa, and only because she is a child.

This is not going to be everyone's cup of tea because of how dark and violent it is but if you like fantasy soaked in blood, you'll probably enjoy this.