Graphic Novel Review – Monstress Vol 5 by Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Graphic Novel/Fantasy
Length: 144 pages
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: October 6, 2020
ISBN-13 : 978-1534316614
Stand Alone or Series: 5th volume in the Monstress series
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars
“The long-dreaded war between the Federation and Arcanics is about to explode. Maika must choose her next steps: will she help her friends, or strike out on her own?”
Series Info/Source: This is the fifth volume in the Monstress series. I bought this book.
Story (4/5): Things are definitely escalating between the Federation and the Arcanics, this volume ends up being one huge war between the two groups. I appreciate the way the scope of the story has broadened but honestly this book jumps around so much it gets hard to keep track of what’s happening at points. I am beginning to think each volume is taking on too much; this started with the 4th volume. I enjoyed it, but am still a bit confused about what happened at certain parts and just don’t have time to go back and reread it right now.
Characters (4/5): As with previous books the characters are very well done. However, a lot of new characters are thrown at you (strange nuns with explosive powers for one). Again, all the jumping around between groups of characters is already tough to keep track of and now there are even more. I hope that things calm down some so that we can see some more character development in the next volume.
Setting (5/5): Settings are beautifully drawn and this is a very intricate and detailed world. No real complaints about this, this is a masterfully built world.
Writing/Drawing Style (4/5): This remains an absolute stunning graphic novel series illustration-wise. Each page is a piece of art that is beautiful and detailed and just amazing to look at. The writing I am starting to have more trouble with. We are jumping back and forth in time (some time this is noted, sometimes it’s not) and between a lot of locations. It gets very confusing as to what is actually happening and I found myself paging back and forth trying to figure out what was going on. Hopefully things are tightened up a bit in the next volume and more characters and plotlines don’t continue to be layered on top of a story that is already starting to get too diffuse for this format.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I continue to enjoy the beautiful art style of this graphic novel and love the world here. I really enjoy some of the characters but the number of characters is just getting way too big to keep track of. The story is epic in nature and jumps between scenes very quickly and most of this book is dedicated to a giant war. It got a bit confusing at parts and I kept having to go back and re-read things. I plan on reading the next book in the series but was a bit disappointed in some aspects of this volume. I just don’t like it when graphic novels start to jump between this many storylines, it diffuses the story too much.
