Monstress vol II: The Blood, Marjorie Liu, 152 pages
Maika Halfwolf continues her quest to discover the nature of the demonic force that sleeps inside her and consumed her left arm. Along with her companions, a talking cat (or “nekomancer”) and a child with a fox tail, she, and we the readers, finally begin to get some answers as she sails with some old friends (former freebooters) to a mysterious island made from the bones of a dead god. This is naturally the sequel to Monstress vol I: Awakening, and it is similarly disturbing – look out for plenty of body horror, gore, and unpleasant images. However, this volume is much more comprehensible; more scenes focus on Maika, so there are fewer other characters to keep track of, and the plot is less about the politics of the world and more about Maika’s past, and some of the confusing and mysteries of the first volume are resolved or at least explained more clearly.
Illustrator Sana Takeda shines with her intricate and lushly colored artwork, painting a glorious art-nouveau fantasy world full of intrigue and backstabbing, where human witches cannibalize part-demon Arcanics for the magical power their flesh imparts, and the ghosts of the old gods wander ominously through the land. Liu’s writing does a good job of making the world feel real – there are common idioms in our world that are adapted slightly for this fictional one. However, she often writes conversations interjected with pieces of Maika’s internal monologue, which can be very difficult to follow.
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