Monstress Volume 1: Awakening - Softcover

Liu, Marjorie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1632157098 ISBN 13: 9781632157096

Publisher: Image Comics, 2016

Synopsis

2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Writer
2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Painter/Multimedia Artist
2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Continuing Series
2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Publication for Teens
2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Cover Artist
2018 Harvey Award winner, Book of the Year
2018 Hugo Award winner, Best Graphic Story
2018 British Fantasy Award winner, Best Comic/Graphic Novel
2018, 2016, 2015 Entertainment Weekly's The Best Comic Books of the Year
2018, Newsweek's Best Comic Books of the Year
2018, The Washington Post's 10 Best Graphic Novels of the Year
2018, Barnes & Noble's Best Books of the Year
2018, YALSA's Great Graphic Novels for Teens
2018, Thrillist's Best Comics & Graphic Novels of the Year
2018, Powell's Best Science-Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Graphic Novels of the Year

Set in an alternate matriarchal 1900's Asia, in a richly imagined world of art deco-inflected steam punk, MONSTRESS tells the story of a teenage girl who is struggling to survive the trauma of war, and who shares a mysterious psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, a connection that will transform them both and make them the target of both human and otherworldly powers.

About this title

About the Author

Marjorie Liu is an attorney and New York Times bestselling author of over nineteen novels. She is the co-creator of the Eisner-nominated series MONSTRESS published by Image Comics. Her comic book work includes X-23, Black Widow, Dark Wolverine, and Astonishing X-Men, for which she was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for outstanding media images of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. She currently teaches a course on comic book writing at MIT.

Sana Takeda is based in Japan and is best known in the United States for working with Marjorie Liu, most recently on their hit fantasy series MONSTRESS.

Reviews

Gr 10 Up—In the aftermath of a terrible war, tension still exists between the humans and the animal-hybrids, Arcanics. Surviving Arcanics are sold as slaves by the Federation of Man and even experimented on by the Cumaea, powerful human witch-nuns who mine the precious life-giving Lilium produced from the bodies of captured Arcanics. Maika Halfwolf, a 17-year-old Arcanic, survived the war but at a devastating cost. Looking for revenge, she allows herself to be sold as a slave to infiltrate the Cumaean stronghold in Zamora. Once there, she uses her newly developed, terrible power to escape, free the captured Arcanics, and brutally attack the witch-nuns. She also steals a fragment of an ancient and powerful mask and murders a Cumaean elder who knows secrets from Maika's past. On the run from the Cumaea, the humans, and her own people, Maika must rely on herself and very few allies if she is to discover the secret of why her mother was murdered and, more important, who she is and what awful power she possesses. Collecting the first five issues of the popular comic, this is a beautifully written and complex book. Intricate and detailed, with a definite manga influence, Takeda's artwork creates a lush and dangerous world for Liu's equally dangerous characters. The work is infused with feminist themes; almost all of the characters are strong—and deadly—women. VERDICT Intended for mature audiences owing to the violence and nudity and filled with rage and barely contained fury, this is a book that will be wildly embraced by all fans of graphic literature.—Erik Knapp,Davis Library, Plano, TX

Edition details

• Publisher: Image Comics
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1632157098
• ISBN 13: 9781632157096
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208