Eliza and Her Monsters

I am usually not put off by over hyped books, and I actually enjoy reading them. And I have never really been disappointed by one either but this book was definitely a let down.

Eliza is a typical anti-social teenager in high school who doesn't have friends or a very strong relationship with her family because she doesn't really talk to anyone. But she has an online secret. She is the anonymous creator of a very famous webcomic and is friends with two of her website admins. Then enters Wallace, a new kid in her class who also happens to be the most famous fanfiction writer of her webcomic. She finally opens up to him but never reveals her truth. What follows is the story of the consequences when her anonymity is busted.

Eliza suffers from anxiety and panic attacks and it was hard for me to relate to that side of her. I really liked the depiction of the fandom, her online friends Max and Emmy and also her struggle with finding motivation to continue her comic for the sake of its fans. I think it was very realistic and probably many authors struggle with such issues. But though I understand her issues with anxiety, I couldn't empathize with her. She blames her parents for not understanding her but when they try, she is very rude and doesn't even try to talk to them. Her brothers obviously love her but don't know how to talk to her because she keeps them at a distance too. She doesn't even try but blames everyone else for being indifferent. Wallace as a character is also pretty boring and comes across as self-obsessed and very rude towards her when the truth is revealed. Also, the little tidbits of her webcomic felt more like fillers and didn't add anything to the story.

The book wasn't really bad and I really wanted to finish it too in the hopes that it would get better, but couldn't like it very much at the end because I couldn't connect with the characters.