Emil Ferris

In the conclusion of this two-part graphic novel, set in 1960s Chicago, dark mysteries past and present abound, and 10-year-old Karen tries to solve them.

My Favorite Thing is Monsters

Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late ’60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, filled with B-movie horror and pulp monster magazines iconography. Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, while the interconnected stories of those around her unfold. When Karen’s investigation takes us back to Anka’s life in Nazi Germany, the reader discovers how the personal, the political, the past, and the present converge.

Book 1

Lindy

I can see why Alison Bechdel gave My Favorite Thing Is Monsters a glowing blurb-- while Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is a memoir and Monsters is a work of fiction, at their cores both are stories about young women making sense of a world of secrets through the narratives into which they escape. 

Ferris's artwork is incredible. It's dense and moody and perfectly suited for the pulp horror theme. I'm far less taken with the plot, which had pacing issues, and I thought Anka's backstory was poorly conceived and executed. Additionally, a good portion of the pages weren't structured in a way that flowed well and I had to read them a couple times over to figure out what the correct sequencing was supposed to be.

Lara Engle

Ahhhhh! It's so long until the second one comes out!

Everything about this book is great: the drawings, the characterization, the story, the mystery, the voice. It's just so good.

Dimitris Papastergiou

Yeah... Nope.

Couldn't even finish it.

CHAOS.

It would do better as an art book.

Isabela H 

Honestly, I gave up on this book because it started being too big of an effort to read it. I never was able to get through more than a couple pages at a time and I regularly got lost on pages where I had no idea what was happening. There were things that I did notice and appreciate, but on the whole, I just couldn't keep going.

Gisela Ayala 

“Sometimes a thing happens that's so bad that it feels like things should be made to look on the outside, the way they feel on the inside.” 

I stayed up most of the night finishing this book- I could not put it down. Karen, a young girl living during the 60's, sees herself and others around her as monstrous. Is it a coping mechanism or is that how people really are? The story dives deep into her obsession of being monstrous. BUT not all monsters are bad. Sometimes what people see as monstrous is just... different, broken, damaged. But still vital. 

Side Note: I appreciate the author writing about my personal favorite take on the Medusa myth. Usually people talk about the heroic Perseus slaying the monstrous Medusa. But Medusa was forced to be a monster by a goddess after being raped by a god. She's minding her own business and then Perseus goes into her house and slays her. Not cool Perseus.

Maggie Gordon

My Favourite Thing is Monsters is an experimental graphic novel that is told through the eyes of a ten year old obsessed with horror movies. Her family is falling apart and her neighbour is murdered. The world of the 1960s is in upheaval, and our protagonist is drawing a diary of her experiences. The art is stunning, a mock up of bic pen on notebook paper. The story, while intriguing, is a bit of a mess. Sure, some of that can be explained by the age of our protagonist, but some additional clarity would have been nice. Regardless, I will be picking up volume 2 because I am committed now!

Celeste Richardson

Beautiful. I had no concrete expectations for this going in, but My Favorite Thing is Monsters is hands down the most unique graphic novel I’ve ever read. The story, the art style, and the character development where all absolutely brilliant. I was incredibly moved by it.
“Never let anyone’s darkness provoke you into your own midnight.”
This is a coming of age story unlike any other, told and drawn from the perspective of Karen Reyes, a ten-year-old girl growing up in the 60s. Karen is completely obsessed with monsters, and consumes every magazine and television show and movie about them she can find. This graphic novel is set up as her journal, in which she records her observations of others and her inner thoughts through both words and drawings. The story is also her hunt to solve a mystery, which added another layer of fun to the reading experience.
“I guess that's the difference... a good monster sometimes gives somebody a fright because they're weird-looking and fangy... a fact that is beyond their control...

But bad monsters are all about CONTROL... They want the whole world to be scared so that BAD MONSTERS can call the shots.”
There was actually a ton of artistic commentary here, both in Karen’s interpretations of famous artwork and through how she represented others. Almost every character is conveyed as being related to some kind of monster, and is drawn accordingly. This is most evident in Karen’s portrayal of herself in her own eyes. 
“Like I said, basements usually smell like surrealism. But kitchens and gardens almost always smell like impressionism.

Because our kitchen is part of a basement apartment, it smells like the early impressionism of Vincent Van Gogh - all big strokes of umber and ochre - a peppery greasy I-love-you smell.” 
We also see a lot of timely topics through the eyes of this child, from the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy, to the Flower Power and anti-Vietnam War movements, to the racism and homophobia that pervaded every aspect of life at the time. We also see the aftermath of World War II through the eyes of a concentration camp victim, which was both fascinating and almost too painful to read. Karen also conveys the importance of family and self-expression and standing up for the things you believe in. But she also showed how difficult all of those things can be, not only for a ten-year-old girl, but for the adult surrounding her. 
“Sometimes a thing happens that's so bad that it feels like things should be made to look on the outside, the way they feel on the inside.”
Something else I appreciated about this particular graphic novel was how substantial it is. At right around 400 pages, it’s one of the longest books I’ve read in the genre. The story was meaty, and was well balanced by the stunningly unique artwork. Karen Reyes felt incredibly real to me, and I was thankful to be able to spend so much time with her. Although I borrowed a digital copy of this from my library, I immediately tracked down a physical copy to have on my shelf. I’m eagerly awaiting its sequel (and conclusion), due to be published right around my birthday next year. I will definitely be preordering it for myself as a gift. I was deeply moved by Volume 1, and I can’t wait to see how the story wraps up in Volume 2.

You can find  this review and more at Novel Notions.

Michelle Xu

4.25-4.5 range.

I finished this book last night at like 1am and decided to sleep on it. Right when I finished I would have given it at 4 but then I kept shifting back and forth between a 4 and 5. I think the fact I was so hesitant meant I should rank it closer to a 4... some things I liked and a few small things I didn't like below:

What I enjoyed:
Like 99% of it. It was so unique and different I loved the drawing style and the fact that we were looking through the sketchbook/diary of the main character, Karen. I also love that because it's through her eyes, as the reading we're left to piece together some of the meaning. I like that the comic didn't flat out tell us who killed who and what exactly was going on. The interpretation through the lens of a 10-year-old was so unique.

It also surprised me how deep and dark this graphic novel got. I went in expecting it to be horror, and I'm not quite sure if I should even shelf it as that. The horror of this comic really comes from reality and not those monsters that Karen draws so well. From Karen's real-life horrors to her neighbor Anka's past horrors, I was heartbroken and drawn into it all. 

The story, art style, and everything was just so great. I liked the selective use of color so much. I liked hoer Anka was blue, I liked how her mother's eyes would have that tiny bit of green, etc. So much thought was put into it.

Overall, the novel was unexpected, pertinent, heartwrenching, and even funny at times. 

The aspects that made me give it a 4 instead of 5:
A few parts that threw me off was that if Karen was 10, her writing level was largely at a high school grade level. But occasionally she would have a misspelled word here and there (intentional by the author). Or Karen wouldn't know what something is when she knew what someone else maybe just as complicated was (I can't pick out any examples, bc the app I use to read the novel on doesn't have annotating or bookmarks for the free version). Not sure if that made sense. But I felt like I could either suspend my disbelief at how great of an artist and vocabulary a 10 year old could have if it was consistent through the entire comic. Instead the few times the author slid in purposeful typos or inaccuracies took me out of the story. This happened only a handful of times, so it wasn't a huge deal.

The other part was literally just that I felt the novel ended too suddenly and too many loose strings. I know that there's a part 2, but the very last 15% of the novel went by so quickly without explaining too much and then it just ended. I wish that the story was a bit smoother at the end of it all that would still leave a good cliffhanger for the 2nd book.

Zoe Smolen

Phenomenal. I really wish this book had been out when I took a class on graphic novels in college - it would have been a perfect addition to the class. I eagerly await part 2.

Casie Blevins

Nikki Sojkowski

While Anka's cassette tapes were riveting, all of the tangents and meandering made for a long story. While I understand there is a book two, it was disappointing not to receive any volume-contained resolution.

b.andherbooks

All the stars for this compelling, haunting, and absolutely stunning graphic novel!
 
Constructed as the sketchbook diary of a young girl named Karen Reyes who is obsessed with pulp horror monster magazines and movies, it is also an investigation of real-life monsters. 

Karen, who depicts herself as a wolfman-type monster, is investigating the shocking death of her upstairs neighbor Anka while also dealing with bullies at school, her mother's cancer, a secret her beloved brother is hiding from her, and her very own identity. The story-line and art are so well-crafted it just makes you want to sit and sink into the Bic pen drawings and never come out.

This is an absolute MUST read of 2017 and the origin story of this tale and author/illustrator Emil Ferris makes it all the more compelling!

 Bruna Acioly Leão

This was an amazingly complex and lovely written graphic novel. The illustrations also make the story come alive and I really enjoy the aspect of it being drawn on Karen's (the main character) notebook, by Karen herself. It added another interesting element to the story.

Almost the length of an actual novel, both because it has over 400 pages, but also because most pages have a lot more writing than your typical graphic novel. Also, this story is actually lots of intricate little stories wrapped into one. It is set in 1960's Chicago, and the city itself is a character, with highlights to current events happening and to the social climate of the era. There is first the story of the main character, 12-year-old Karen, who sees herself as a werewolf and her relationship with her brother who first taught her how to drawn and with her mother who is sometimes strict, but also supportive and there are a few tragedies within her family circle that Karen has to deal with throughout the book. There is the story of Karen's struggle with her self-identity and her sexuality.

There are also the stories of the neighbors who live in her apartment building and the people she meets at school. Within those, another main story is the mystery that Karen is trying to solve (for she fancies herself a detective), the death of one of her favorite neighbors, Anka, who is Jewish and has escaped Nazi Germany. Karen hears tapes of Anka recounting her childhood and that was probably the part that I found most compelling in the story.

At first, I have to admit it took me a while to get used to the story's unique format and to come to care about the main characters, but by the end, I was super invested in all the little mysteries and all the minor characters.

I highly recommend this graphic novel and I can't wait to read the second and final volume once it comes out this year. Hopefully, it will answer all the questions this book has raised.

Bryan Alexander

What a rich, impressive, and moving graphic novel.

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is a historical or autobiographical work about a girl growing up in Chicago. Our heroine and narrator, Karen Reyes, is obsessed with horror movies and comics (hence the title), and wants to be a detective. The main mystery she must solve is the mysterious death of a neighbor, but along the way she has to learn about her family and, of course, life.

This is not a plot-heavy or action-oriented graphic novel. Much of it consists of Karen's reflections and imagining, along with her conversations with friends, neighbors, and family. Emil Ferris takes her time in building up the world of lower-class late-1960s Chicago, and patiently generating characters in depth. Their backstories, concerns, passions emerge powerfully.

Karen's monster focus structures the book in multiple ways. Every time we see her - except for one striking panel late in the book (no page # here, as all are unnumbered) - Karen appears as a monster herself, usually a pleasant werewolf. Many other characters morph into monsters or take on fantastic characteristics. Very entertaining is the division of chapters (were these originally single issues?), with a lead page offering a mock-horror-comic cover in glorious mad style. Beyond the visual level, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters pursues the theme of human monstrosity, not so much in terms of evil but as people are horrible to each other.

That theme becomes most resonant during a long embedded narrative, when we learn about the murder victim's earlier life. Anya Silverberg grew up as a child prostitute in Wiemar Germany, then experienced the Nazi era, even being interned at a concentration camp. By the volume's end we haven't learned about how she made it to Chicago, nor enough about her pursuer (apparently) to figure out the crime on our own, but the horror of that section re-grounds the novel's 1960s framing. That framing adds more detail by the book's end, as a major political event erupts ((view spoiler)[the assassination of Martin Luther King (hide spoiler)], and further develops many characters.

A further word about the visuals: this is a striking and lush graphic novel. Ferris explores many forms of individual page layout, arranging panels and objects into an impressive variety. She also mutates her style from pulp horror to naturalism, expressionism to surrealism. Most of the drawings are black and white, but color appears with great effect: Anya always tinged in blue, blood and rose petals in serious red, a too-rare utopian gleam in Karen's mother's eye glowing a dreamlike green. I found myself lingering on images more than I usually do, sussing out details and style. One reason for this is that art is a major theme of the book, with two main characters being artists, each claiming a salvific role for drawing.

Back to the narrative: I was reminded of Will Eisner's foundational classic, 
  A Contract with God
 (1978), in the way Ferris devotes herself so deeply and seriously to these largely struggling urban characters. She resists the temptation to make any purely heroic or villainous, instead allowing them space to flourish in messy complexity. The reader can anticipate some plot points, especially the last page's reveal, but this isn't the kind of mystery where that's the main game. Instead we want to see how Karen et al grow and reveal themselves along the way.

Monsters also brings to my mind other autobiographical works, notably those from Alison Bechdel and Seth. Its sustained formal invention recalls Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware.

It's a tricky book to classify generically. "Autobiography" might be it, but I don't know if that's what Ferris claims. Fantasy is certainly there, with demons, Karen traveling between paintings, and the blur between human and monster. Gothic horror appears - not just because of the monster theme, but from several scenes deeply steeped in that genre, like (view spoiler)[Anya's near-sacrifice in a cult's abbey (hide spoiler)]. Historical fiction might work, given the dual settings of 1918-1940 and 1967. I mentioned mystery earlier, and that genre's certainly in play; its ally true crime might also be engaged.

I recommend this very strongly. It will require your attention, and repay it well.

My Favorite Thing is Monsters

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