The high school me could relate with Eliza. I didn’t like school and had a hard time communicating with my peers. Reading and writing were my means of escape from reality. I never created an online fandom like Eliza, but I did hang around the Inkpop forums before Figment took over. Given this shared experience and how the Internet has become such a large part of our culture, I was interested in seeing how Francesca Zappia would bring the two worlds together.
I like how Francesca Zappia integrates pages from Eliza’s popular webcomic Monstrous Sea, comment threads, and text messages into the novel. It gives us a broader picture of Eliza’s life and how much more real her online community is to her than her offline life, where everything that can go wrong seems to go wrong. (At least, to the teenage mind.) Because of this broader picture, I can empathize with how Eliza puts more energy into her online life. It’s so much easier to invest into something that’s going well, especially after all our past efforts with the alternative seem to have failed.
Regardless of whether you consider yourself an artist, I believe we can all relate to Eliza’s creativity and passion. We’ve all felt passion for something at one part in our life. Whether or not we continued to feed that passion is another story. (Or maybe you found another passion: I can relate to that one. I was the child who tried different things but found a hard time sticking to any one thing. Anyone else relate?) I enjoy reading YA lit because of the hope it lights up in the midst of challenges. It fuels my drive to delve into my passions and create something.
The ending of Eliza really hits home for me. There will be times when we fall into slumps. When we want to give up and let go of everything. Even after we overcome one obstacle, we may face another one later on. Eliza’s continued passion for her creation in a time of trial reminds me never to persevere through the challenges. When we can get through them, the result will be so, so rewarding.
(Her story also reminds me that authors are human too. There are authors who go on long hiatuses. Eliza reminds us that authors don’t belong to their fans; they need time off too for personal reasons. I appreciate the time that authors take with their craft. Some of my favorite authors tend to take their time with their works, and the quality of their writing is worth the wait!)
Of course, no story is perfect, and the reasons will differ from reader to reader. Some things that I didn’t love so much were….
1. The language
It’s not pervasive, but there are times when cuss words pop up
2. The romance
There are some intimate moments behind closed doors. (Thankfully, nothing that involves clothes coming off, but I did feel like I was invading their private space).
My bigger problem, however, is how Wallace handles the big reveal and what he says to her the next time they see each other. (I don’t consider this a spoiler because we know the reveal is going to happen eventually). Though he seems to try to be understanding, in the end, he’s thinking about himself, and his backstory was developed enough for me to empathize with the way he treats her. In the end, I still don’t see how they got resolve everything other than the fact that they’re teenagers. (It still would have been good to see them communicate more. Too much is done at the end out of moments of passion.)
3. Where’s Monstrous Sea?
I was looking forward to seeing the story of Monstrous Sea interwoven with that of Eliza’s offline life. While we do see some of the story, it’s so sparse and infrequent, that I wouldn’t remember what I’d last seen of Monstrous Sea by the time the next section came around. I’m also confused as to how the storyline all fits in together. I needed to see either more of Monstrous Sea (so I could make the connections ) or less of it (so I could remember what I did see).
4. Underdeveloped Family Relations
While I like how Eliza’s family plays an important role in her life (as under appreciated as they are in the beginning), things wrap up a little to nicely at the end. I feel like Eliza isn’t given the chance to grow as much as she could have as a daughter and sister.
Yes, her family didn’t try as hard as they could have to understand her and support her, but Eliza also fails to try to understand them and assumes that they hate her. I love how her brothers take action at the end to move things forward, and I wish that more pages were dedicated to showing her respond in kind. This was a great opportunity to show character growth and shine the spotlight on the family.
Eliza’s story is one with which many readers can relate no matter where they come from. We often think that other people live more glamorous lives than ours or judge us more harshly than they do. Who better to show us this than Eliza, whose online life is scrutinized by millions of fans? While I did have some problems with plot development (especially the later stages of the romance), I enjoyed following Eliza’s high school troubles and the nostalgia of my own high school life (not that I enjoyed high school much when I was a high school student). Eliza’s story is a remind that, no matter how tough things get, as long as we push forward with hope for the future, we will find joy in the midst of trials and come out a stronger person.
Lastly, I do need to shout out the references to anime. I love anime and cartoons in general 🙂
Her story is a phenomenon. Her life is a disaster.
In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.
Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.
But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.
What is your favorite means of escape?
Publication Info
|
Series
|
Content
|
Author: Crystal
A story girl at heart, Crystal is a bibliophile who can easily spend the day immersed in a good read. She writes under the name Kristy Wang. You can follow her writing adventures on X and Instagram @_kristywang.
Leave a Reply