My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book One

5++ stars for the artistry. It's astonishing, and amazing.

5 stars for the style. The story unfolds as notes and musings within the teen narrator's 'sketchbook.'

4.5 stars for the story. It's multilayered with a lot to dive into and think about.

The story is set in the 60s in Chicago and told by a teen girl who is into monsters - think B horror movies and creep shows and dime store horror novellas, fanzines, etc. The girl lives in an apartment building with her older brother (an artist with a dark side) and her mother.

One of the building tenants is shot and the girl becomes obsessed with 'solving' her murder. She's convinced the murderer is someone who lives in the building and possibly someone very close to her.

It's also a coming of age show more tale with the monsters an analogy for people. Some kids (and adults) tend to fear those that 'look' different and treat them badly. Other people look 'normal,' yet are monstrously evil.

Very adult themes, not recommended for kids. LGBT friendly. Relevant to anyone who struggles with feelings of being outcast and finding a place in the world. That's a great metaphor for adolescence, too, which is why this works well on a number of layers.

No clear resolution of who killed the neighbor (or whether, in fact, it was suicide after all) or the story of Victor.

Complicated, but it works well. Can't wait to see what's next from Emil Ferris. show less

One of the most physically challenging books I've read. The deliberately hand drawn art is absorbing and detailed. The hand lettering is varied in its texture, depth and orientation. The unnumbered pages seem to stretch to infinity and I frequently felt lost - had I read three pages or thirty in this sitting?

The lost and disorienting reading experience mimicked the plot. The pre-teen protagonist's inconsistent grasp on time, consequences, and even reality creates layers of displacement as the plot slowly resolves into focus.

One of the best and most challenging graphic novels I've read in several years.

This is an excellent book, a really absorbing masterwork, so good it's hard to believe it's Emil Ferris's first graphic novel. Karen is a pre-teen girl growing up in 1960s Chicago, and as the title indicates, her favorite thing is monsters-- she's obsessed with schlocky horror comics and movies. At the same time she has to navigate being a pariah at her Catholic school, she also must survive racism, deal with her mother's cancer, and investigate the murder of her glamorous German neighbor. The book is amazingly drawn, all done in ballpoint pen on looseleaf; you're reading Karen's journal's account of the events of the story. There's a lot of collage/montage, with Ferris's artwork blending the realistic with the fantastic, and the use of show more color is astonishing at times. Who knew pen could be so beautiful? A prolonged series of flashbacks to the Holocaust are captivating. I have little idea where this honking enormous book is going (the second half is due this fall, I believe), but I really want to know. show less

Set in Chicago, in the late 60s, this dazzling, graphic novel, is presented as a fictional diary, written by a ten year old named Karen. She has a devout adoration for monsters and envisions herself as a female werewolf, or were-girl, if you will. After a neighbor dies, mysteriously, Karen decided to do some sleuthing herself and finds herself navigating some dark, twisty, places, confronting the drug world, freaks and the Holocaust.
I would rather not divulge any more details but I will start hurling a few more superlatives- This is a powerhouse work, written and illustrated, with depth, beauty and horror. An unsettling creepshow that would make Robert Crumb shudder.
Yes, it is early in the year but I would be hard pressed to think, I show more will read a better GN in 2017. As an added bonus, this is only part one...wolfish grin. show less

A young girl growing up in 1960s Chicago with an obsession with monsters finds herself uniquely positioned to solve a mystery. Her upstairs neighbor, Anka, who she is close with is found murdered in her apartment on Valentine's Day. All the doors and windows are locked from the inside so the police must rule it a suicide. However, Anka was shot in the chest in the living room but was found tucked into her bed.

It's up to our protagonist to get to the bottom of this dark matter. She will learn more about Anka's life and the way she survived the holocaust. She will learn more about her family and the relationships Anka had with men. Her mother's progressively worsening health will become a catalyst that reveals unexpected truths.

This is show more an amazing story about self-discovery and the secrets we keep from those we love the most. Deep down, in the right circumstances, everyone is a monster. show less

This book sucked me in immediately with its art, concept, and wonderful main character. I love the blend of color and black-and-white art, and even though over-full pages in graphic novels sometimes drive me a little batty, it all works so well here, I loved it!

That said, the middle of the book diverges into the history of another character apart from our child narrator, and I have to admit I didn't enjoy that section as much--it felt like the book had changed focus completely and turned into a different book all of a sudden, and I'm not sure I ever completely fell back in love with the book after that, the story and focus felt torn in so many different directions.

I loved the art throughout, and the way we got to understand the adults show more in the story through a child's POV, which was accomplished in such nuanced fashion that I'll forever be impressed. I haven't quite decided whether I'll go onto the next volume. The end portion of the book felt scattered, and I'm just not sure how I feel about the ending, which felt a bit more cliff-hangery than resolute in any true sense.

For the art, and for the concept and presentation of the main character, I'd definitely recommend it. Lovers of literary graphic novels are probably the best audience. show less

There are graphic novels that could just be novels, and there are graphic novels that could just be art books, and there are graphic novels that really just want to be movies, but (for me) the best ones are the graphic novels that could not be anything but a graphic novel, and My Favorite Thing is Monsters is just that kind of work.

Karen is a 10 year old girl living in late-1960s Chicago with her single mother and her older brother Deeze. She loves monster movies and she loves drawing, and the book is her notebook of drawings -- part diary, part dream, and a lot of recreated monster magazine covers along with artwork from the Art Institute. She is a lonely girl -- coming out to herself, in love with her best (and really only) friend, show more but banned from seeing her after the other girl's mother sees them getting too close, bullied at school, and generally seen as a weirdo who likes monster movies too much by kids her own age. Instead she spends time with the other neighbors in her apartment complex, her adult brother and his friends, and the characters on the streets of her neighborhood. When Karen's upstairs neighbor, Anka, is murdered, and Karen decides to investigate. Her detective works brings us into Anka's past in Germany, both her childhood growing up in a brothel before the war, and her experience of the Holocaust. At the same time, Karen's mother is diagnosed with cancer, and she is gradually learning more about family secrets from her early childhood.

The storylines intersect, bounce off each other, and veer down pathways. The drawing style, though, keeps everything tied together. Printed with a lined notebook paper background, the images range from very detailed, realistic, beautiful portraits, to ugly caricatures, sometimes in the same panel. Karen draws herself as a girl crossed with a werewolf (except for one moving scene where Deeze shows us her real face). Cross hatching and a delicate touch of color give the drawings vibrancy and action that matches the overwhelming, often sad, and very very lifelike story. This is a doorstop of an amazing book (416 pages) and it is only half the story. I can't wait to read volume 2. (Huge thanks to my friend John for the gift show less