Eliza and Her Monsters

Eliza and Her Monsters

by Francesca Zappia

In this world of cell phones and online anonymity, parents find it harder and harder to understand their children. This is especially true for Eliza Mirk and her parents. 

Eliza is one of the most introverted people out there and yet she also has one of the biggest online followings in the world. At school, Eliza just tries to get through each day, never making eye contact and ignoring the world around her. Online, Eliza is LadyConstellation, the creator and author of Monstrous Sea, one of the biggest webcomics on the Internet. 

As LadyConstellation, Eliza is generous to her fans, regularly answers questions, and even joins in on the teen soap forums. She has a huge fan forum and merchandising operation run by the only two people outside of her family who know her real identity. 

But at home, Eliza's introverted behavior worries her parents and alienates her relatives. She doesn't speak often, rarely pulls her head out of her phone or sketchbook, and definitely does not go out with friends. Her parents have no idea how big Eliza is online and there's really no way to tell them so that they'll understand.

When Eliza meets Warren, the new kid at school, there's a profound shift in her life. He's highly introverted, as well, and he has his own online secrets but they are drawn together by Monstrous Sea and their mutual difficulties in dealing with the real world; they may be the only two people in the world who truly understand the other person.

Now Eliza needs to figure out how to meld the two worlds before they crash together on their own.

Final thoughts: I really enjoyed this book. I'm in that in-between generation that loves tech but I wasn't raised on it from infancy. I definitely like my social media and all the things that my cell phone and computer can do, but I don't live online. This shared some great insights that I hope to be able to use in the future. Eliza's webcomic is a little difficult for me to grasp with the little we see, but the illustrations pull the story together and get more solid over the course of the book, just as Eliza becomes more solid a character. As an introvert myself, Eliza's struggles are real to me and Zappia brings those issues to the page very well. Good read.

Rating: 4/5

Royals

Royals

by Rachel Hawkins

Daisy is your ordinary geek who works at the local shopping mart and hangs with her BFF. Her only dream is to go to Key West and the con that's held there so that she can meet her fave author. Unfortunately, Daisy's sister makes all of that impossible by agreeing to marry a Scottish prince. Now Daisy must travel to Scotland to meet the royal family and clear up a mess that her ex-boyfriend made for that family when he lied to the press.

Once there, Daisy meets Seb, the brother of the now-engaged prince, and Seb's crew, The Royal Wreckers. Now Daisy's job (to make her sister look good and to clear the family name) is made that much more difficult, especially since the paparazzi really seems to like to follow her.

Can Daisy clear up this royal mess and find a little romance of her own?

Final thoughts: Bland. There were a couple of good moments, but it just didn't flow well. I didn't love any of the characters and I didn't feel any chemistry for anyone. Even the perfect upcoming marriage doesn't feel like one for love despite that being the party line. This book is a way to pass an afternoon but I wouldn't put more stock in it than that.

Rating: 3/5

 

Zenn Diagram

Zenn Diagram

by Wendy Brant

Eva Walker has gone through life not touching people. Literally and figuratively. When Eva touches people in the literal sense, she can see "fractals" or geometric images and colors that make up their lives. This means Eva refuses to touch people figuratively so she doesn't have to take the chance of touching them literally.

Then she meets Zenn.

His jacket tells one story but his touch tells something else and that something else is what attracts Eva to him. 

They start off slowly but things speed up when they find out a secret neither even dreamed possible. Will that secret keep them apart or bring them together?

Final thoughts: There is literally no plot here. Nothing. It's a few months in the lives of a couple of teens. The whole supernatural fractals issue isn't really even effective here. There's no reason for it to exist except as an excuse for Eva (Eh-vah, not Ee-vah) to be a loner. People can be introverted and alone without some weird touch sensitivity to cause it. The story is slow and doesn't pick up at all until over halfway through. The characters don't really have any characteristics to make them matter. It's a slow plod with no point and the epilogue is just strange and completely out of place. Bland, dull, and pointless.

Rating: 2/5