Listen, I’m not here to present myself as some sort of expert. I don’t consider myself an expert on anything, really; more of an enthusiast. That said, there is clearly a difference in the level of knowledge I have on one subject vs. another. And ironically, ‘books’ would be one of the subjects I’d consider myself less knowledgeable in. I’m essentially new to it all.
Anyway, thanks for checking out my blog! I hope you take my opinions seriously!
I’m certainly enthusiastic about reading. I read 60 books last year and am on pace to do it again in 2026. Also, I obviously started this site. The year before was 26 books and I only read 8 the year before that. Then, anywhere from zero to three books every year prior.
From my extensive television and movie watching, I’m fairly well-versed in the adaptations of popular novels. And let’s face it, most ‘new’ films and shows are based on existing books, so I’m not exactly starting from zero. But I wasn’t reading at anywhere near this clip, pre-covid.
In that case, as much as I’m excited about diving into comic books for the first time, I still have a lot to learn about the structure of it all. Saga, which is an early favorite of mine, structures their releases like this:
- A new issue (avg. 25 pages) releases first.
- A volume (avg. 153 pages) is released every six issues.
- A book (avg. 494 pages) is released every three volumes.
- A compendium (1328 pages) is released every three books.
With Saga being my first true dive into an ongoing comic book series, I assumed this was how it always worked. That was until Something Is Killing The Children showed me that their first book included volumes #1-3 and their second book included volumes #4-7, with no compendium released to-date. Though they do have something called an Omnibus (volumes #1-8), whatever that is.
It’s all very confusing and I’m realizing now that I haven’t reviewed Monstress at all yet, so let me get to it!
I haven’t yet decided how I’m going to do a spoiler-free review of a sequel in an ongoing series, since it becomes very difficult to effectively review a section of a total story without giving spoilers. So instead, I’m going to review the Monstress series, as a whole.
At its core, it’s very similar to Saga. I just finished volume 9 and I’m on the library waitlist for volume 10. It is the story of a ‘half-breed’, if you will, that seems to be the center point of several warring factions. As a human being with a god mentally connected to/living inside her, we are thrown into the world of philosophical cats, magical animal-like creatures and pragmatic, if not occultist, human beings all locked into a never-ending war.
It’s far more dramatic than Saga, though it’s not entirely without humor; particularly from Kippa, a fox girl, and a talking cat named Master Ren. While it’s not my number one comic series, it’s certainly a worthy read. I’d check it out if you’re an avid comic book reader but I’m not sure I’d recommend it to someone who is new to the medium. I’d certainly start with Saga first. Still good though.
Monstress by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda
WeHa Book Club 
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