The first thing I need to say about Monstress is that it’s gorgeous. The art style is so detailed and beautiful. Delicate patterns, steampunk art deco aesthetic, creepy old gods, cats, everything I love. It’s also dark and often bloody, no sunshine and flowers over here. In fact I saw someone say it was grimdark, and that explains a lot. Would I have read it had I known? Probably, because of the cats.      

Another thing I absolutely loved was the worldbuilding. For one thing there are talking many-tailed nekomancer cats (and poets, but I’m less impressed with those). Cats are one of the main species on this world, super cute but also vicious and conniving. This paragraph alone would’ve been enough to sell me on this book, but even beyond the cats the world is great. It feels large and real, with different countries, that hold deep grudges and complicated political relationships. The world is recovering from a war, ended by a nuclear like calamity that no one can really explain, but everyone is after the weapon that caused it. The Arcanics  are a species, kind of creature, category of people that are a mix between human and ancients. Ancients are powerful magical creatures, like bipedal animals, for instance a woman shape and sized many tailed fox. 

The story is about Maika Halfwolf, trying to survive and figure out her past while navigating all the many groups that want to catch her and use her for her own interests. Things rarely, if ever go well for her, and knowing friends from enemies is next to impossible in this cat eat cat world (the cats don’t actually eat cats). Everyone is morally gray, with most people towards the darker shades, there’s a lot of exploring who the monsters are , is it worse if you kill to protect or do nothing to defend etc. Is Maika a monster, was she made that way, can there be redemption? Everyone has a secret, an ulterior motive, hiding information for their own reasons, trust no one heavily applies, but sometimes the only way forward is too trust, 

Trying to figure out her past through fragments of memory and talking to people also reveals a lot of the world, especially the ancient history of the mysterious old gods, which I found interesting, and I’m glad to see the story seems to be showing more and more about them as it evolves. 

I liked how, for a horribly depressing world filled with war crimes and slavery, the parts inhabited by Arcanics, at least, are inclusive, I really liked the married sea queens and the two tiger-god-fathers. 

With all the nations and their plots and their secrets and mysteries, I had to do a recap of volume 1 (which I’d read a few months ago) before starting the others, so I’d advise doing them in one go if you also sometimes struggle with keeping things straight. 

Bingo squares: Graphic Novel