Eliza Mirk is an unsociable and shy high school student who much prefers to spend her time in the online world, where she can have complete control over her identity and be as anonymous as she likes. When she is online, she is simply known as LadyConstellation, the author of the insanely popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. However, when Eliza meets a boy named Wallace Warland, who also happens to be a popular fanfiction writer for Monstrous Sea, she finds herself opening up for the very first time. Eliza even starts considering the unthinkable — that maybe she doesn’t have to live her whole life in the virtual world. But when her identity as LadyConstellation is revealed to the entire world, everything she has worked for starts to crumble.
Even as a person who doesn’t always enjoy contemporaries, I absolutely loved this book. Zappia created such a wonderful protagonist and I really enjoyed watching the character grow and learn as the story progressed. The illustrations were just as beautiful and captivating as the prose itself, and they acted as perfect interludes to the story. Moreover, the book explored and discussed mental and emotional health, as well as other topics, in a way that recognized them as the important, widespread issues that they are. Overall, I thought this book was amazing, and I would definitely recommend it.