Graphic Novel Review – Hollow Gods (Monstress, Vol 10) by Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Graphic Novel/DarkFantasy
Length: 184 pages
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: December 2, 2025
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1534332690
Stand Alone or Series: 10th volume in the Monstress series
Source: Bought paperback
Rating: 4/5 stars

“The Defiled, a group of Monstra long confined to the prison planet Golga, have slipped through a rift between worlds and possessed anyone who has ever held the Mask of the Shaman-Empress–including Maika, Kippa, and Maika’s father, the Lord Doctor. Without Zinn at her side, Maika will need to partner with the most unlikely of allies to fight this invasion–or risk losing everything and everyone she loves..”

Series Info/Source: This is the 10th volume in the Monstress series. I bought this in paperback format to read.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed the artwork and revisiting this world. I still find this series a bit confusing and wonder where it is going. I keep hoping we are getting close to wrapping up the storyline, but I am honestly not exactly sure what the point of the storyline is anymore. I think I buy these mainly for the cool artwork at this point.

The Defiled have slipped through a rift between worlds and have started to posses former owners of the Mask of the Shaman Empress, including Maika herself and many of her friends. With Zinn trapped by her father, Maika is forced to find a partner elsewhere to help her push back the Defiled.

This was fine; I finished it. The artwork is amazing, and I enjoy reading about these characters. I do wish there had been more of a recap because there are so many characters that I forget where we left off with some of them. I just tried to go with the flow here, the story is very ambiguous so I feel like that’s all I can do.

I don’t really understand how the Defiled play into the larger story. I felt like they were kind of randomly thrown in to create more trouble and extend the series. Of course, maybe they do tie into some earlier story elements, and I just don’t remember those earlier story elements. I don’t own the earlier books in this series anymore (I sold them when I moved), so I can’t do re-reads of this every time a new book comes out.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I liked the artwork here and enjoyed reading about characters I like. I am unsure about the new Defiled invasion storyline and don’t really understand what the point is. As a result, I am not a huge fan of where the story is going, or maybe I just don’t understand where the story is going. Will I keep reading this series? Probably, I like the artwork enough just to buy the series for that alone.

I would absolutely love it if there was a synopsis about how the Defiled tie in with the broader scope of this world. The lack of any sort of summary or synopsis has been an ongoing complaint of mine with this series, but I keep reading it. I think there is just something so unique about this series and I keep being drawn back to it even if it is a bit of a mess. If you enjoy dark fantasy graphic novels, I would recommend this series as a whole.