Monstress Volume 3

by Marjorie Liu

Other authorsSana Takeda (Artist)

Paperback, 2018

Status

Available

Call number

741.5

Publication

Image Comics (2018), Edition: Illustrated, 152 pages

Description

Maika Halfwolf has begun to unlock the mysteries of her past--but the challenges of the present are only growing. Maika's journey takes her to the neutral city of Pontus, where she hopes to find temporary refuge from her pursuers. Unfortunately, Pontus may not be as safe as Maika and her allies had hoped. As the impending war between humans and Arcanics creeps ever closer, and powerful players fight for the chance to control her future, Maika finds she must work with Zinn, the Monstrum that lives inside her, in order to ensure their mutual survival. But even that alliance might not be enough to prepare Maika for the horrors to come.

User reviews

LibraryThing member bragan

The third collected volume of the dark fantasy/horror comic Monstress. I don't know how much there is to say about this one that I didn't already say about the first two. The artwork is still incredibly gorgeous, although it's still not always the easiest thing in the world to follow all the

action. The world-building is still rich and complex. The story continues to get more interesting. And I continue to slightly regret not waiting until the whole thing is over to start reading it, as it's depressingly easy to lose track of everything that's going on between installments.

I will say that the more I read of this, the more impressed I am by the unexpected things it does. Like the way it completely reverses the traditional ratio of male to female characters for this kind of thing and feels no need to justify or even draw attention to this fact. Or the way the man-eating Lovecraftian monstrosity turns out to be a surprisingly complicated and interesting character.

Anyway. I'm still definitely enjoying this (even if I do sometimes feel as if I'm missing things in it), and I'm now really looking forward to volume 4.

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LibraryThing member kinwolf

The art is a bit confusing in this one. In many scenes i had a lot of trouble distinguishing the bad ancients from the slightly-less-bad one that is in Maika. Beside that, still an awesome read.

LibraryThing member macha

this one feels urgent because this volume's arc plays out as one one unending fight between Maika Halfwolf and a very large cast of new opposing forces who are not that well differentiated, with the poet Professor Tam Tam handling most of the historical exposition. whereas it seemed to me the most

interesting thing going on was the character development in the deep background of the original characters, particularly and remarkably that of the monster inside Maika.

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LibraryThing member krau0098

This is the 3rd volume in the Monstress series. While this graphic novel series continues to have an amazing story and some spectacular world-building, what really sets it apart is the phenomenal illustration throughout.

In this volume Maika flees to Pontus to find safety for herself and her

companions. Pontus needs help fixing their shield and when Maika accidentally destroys it she finds herself venturing deep into the depths of her monster’s mistress’s laboratory to find parts meant to fix it.

This series has gotten rather complicated and there are a ton of characters in here. It would have been very helpful to have a quick story synopsis and character guide at the beginning of the book. I struggled some to figure out who was who and get back into the story. Additionally, at points you would turn the page and suddenly be in a completely different place with completely different characters and this was a bit confusing.

However, I am still really enjoying the characters, the world-building, and the illustration. The illustration in here is breathtakingly beautiful. I also really enjoy watching Maika grow and change as a character and watching her interact with her fellow adventurers.

At some point I would like to sit down and read all the Monstress volumes back to back because the story is getting a bit complex and at times is hard to follow.

Overall this was a spectacular continuation of this steampunk fantasy series. I really love the world, the characters, and the illustration. I would recommend to those who enjoy dark fantasy graphic novels; just be prepared to spend some time unweaving the complexities of this story.

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LibraryThing member MillieHennessy

Another solid volume. There's still a lot of political intrigues that I'm not fully absorbing but that's on me. I tend to gloss over professor Tam Tam's text-heavy interludes. I love the world and characters though. This was a perfect read for October. Sometimes the art does get a little dark and

muddied and it's hard to tell what's going on in an action sequence. But overall, I friggen love this series and I can't wait to see where it goes!

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LibraryThing member lavaturtle

Some interesting plot developments here, although I found the details especially at the end a little hard to follow. I love what Kippa adds to the story, a voice of conscience as well as a personal connection for the other characters. The down-to-earth realities happening in the background are a

good contrast to the dreamlike quality of much of what Maika goes through.

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LibraryThing member malexmave

Wow. This series just keeps getting better and better. Can't wait for vol. 4. If you like comics / graphic novels at all, you owe it to yourself to at least take a peek into this series - the art is incredible, and the story is great.

LibraryThing member Glennis.LeBlanc

With this one the time frame is rather compressed, and you find out more about the Empress. Master Ren is told to do things he really doesn’t want to do and Kippa is stepping up to help others of her kind in the city that are refugees. Overall a good story but you certainly need to read the

previous volumes to really know what is going on.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher.

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LibraryThing member Linyarai

I really like the artwork, but the story was my least favorite of the series.

LibraryThing member books-n-pickles

Serious cliffhanger! Argh! And it's going to be a while before I can get the next ones from the library...

I'll try to avoid spoilers, but you probably should stop here anyway if you want to read Monstress for yourself.

With way too many pursuers, Maika and crew head to the magically protected city

of Pontus, which is a haven for refugees of the war between humans and Arcanics, kicked off by war-happy witch-nuns in the wake of Maika's volume 1 break-in. Political upheaval is happening all around this fantasy world--assassins and spies are dispatched, unexpected alliances are made, Arcanics turn against each other despite a shared enemy, religious leaders and politicians are at odds--and it finds Maika when the leaders of Pontus demand that she fix the city's not-exactly-functioning magic shield in exchange for her sanctuary. Meanwhile Ren and Kippa are striking out on their own--the former up to no good (serious foreshadowing in volume 2), the latter up to a great deal of good trying to help her fellow fox Arcanic refugees get to greater safety.

Most of this volume felt kind of like a side quest. Volume 2 was a little off course, but this one totally stopped the momentum. At least, I think it did. I'll be honest, I've kind of lost track of what Maika's goal is. She still violently hates the monster in her body, Zinn, and wants it out, but as they're forced to rely on each other for safety, they start to work together and make a great team. It helps that Zinn is now strong enough to maintain a body of his own...albeit one still attached to Maika. The aim in volumes 1 and 2 seemed to be to gather enough information about the monster inside her and how it got there to get it out...but now that all hell has broken loose, that seems like an even more dangerous option than keeping the life-sucking old god with her.

I have to say, I was glad to see how much shade gets thrown at Maika for her stubborn, stupid loner-ism and impulsivity. It's an incredibly annoying and impractical trope, something that her allies constantly point out: you need friends on your side if you're going to take on the world. But her attitude is really starting to grate.

The cuteness/darkness contrast was also a little jarring. The end of volume 2 was so, so awful, but we open volume 3 in Pontus in brightly-lit restaurants and adorable, Starbucks-inspired cat cafe/coffeehouses. Dumplings. Cakes. Charming interactions. On the one hand, I loved seeing some of the character interactions in these spaces. On the other hand...tonal dissonance like whoa.

I'm going to call it a day on this review. Reading books in such quick succession makes it a bit tough to come up with something clever to say each time. (Though the short books will continue until my next long one arrives. Thank goodness I've got a backlog of Tor.com novellas...)

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