My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two

Starred review from February 26, 2024
The much-anticipated conclusion to Ferris’s dazzling debut proves a triumph. In it, readers are invited deeper into the mind of Karen Reyes, a 10-year-old girl in 1960s Chicago who sees the world through a kaleidoscope of fine art, classic movie and pulp fiction monsters, and mystery. Karen now lives with her older brother, Deeze, a brilliant but troubled artist in danger of being shipped off to Vietnam. As she continues to investigate the death of her neighbor, Holocaust survivor Anka, she becomes enamored with Shelley, another monster-loving girl. Together they form a secret society called the Eternal Guild of the Benevolent Undead. The free-flowing plot develops organically as Ferris lavishes attention on Karen’s obsessions: visits to art museums where she pictures herself climbing into the paintings, conversations about philosophy and paranoia with a Greek chorus of street people, and expeditions into the depths of her spooky old apartment building to unearth family secrets. “All my family does is hide stuff from me,” Karen gripes, even as she discovers that the adults in her life have reasons to bury the truth. Ferris coaxes images of uncanny depth and vitality from ballpoint pen on lined notebook paper, and the dialogue carries similarly offbeat beauty: “Mama used to say Dante’s voice was like butter melting off a honey factory.” Elevating gritty urban realism to the heights of her protagonist’s flights of fancy, Ferris brings forth a gloriously subversive world of the imagination. Agent: Holly Bemiss, Susan Rabiner Literary.

March 15, 2024
Intrigue and sexual awakening await 10-year-old sleuth and lovably wise-beyond-her-years "monster" Karen Reyes in Ferris' much anticipated conclusion to My Favorite Thing Is Monsters (2018). The first book established the main arc of Karen's world. The second volume proceeds with more linear, day-in-the-life storytelling to set up her investigation of neighbor Anka's murder and her brother's involvement with it. Deeze assumes primary caretaking responsibilities after Mama's death, and the siblings connect emotionally by escaping into fine art at the Art Institute of Chicago, where Karen visualizes herself participating in the rituals depicted in the paintings. While Karen appreciates Deeze's attempts to parent, she also stealthily observes his malevolent interactions with the seedy underbelly of late 1960s Chicago and the threats they pose. Ferris makes effective and exquisite use of layered crosshatching to render realistic reproductions of museum pieces and gothic pulp horror through which Karen expresses her feelings. The storytelling, once again, is top-notch and stands on its own. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters was not a one-shot wonder, and this sequel cements Ferris' prowess as both artist and novelist.

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April 15, 2024
Ferris delivers the second part of her debut graphic novel of queer coming-of-age werewolf art noir. In politically charged 1960s Chicago, teenage werewolf Karen Reyes is still haunted by the murder of her neighbor, and now by the cancerous death of her conservative mother, whose worries bleed into Karen's dreams via a beheaded but sentient teddy bear. With Mom's judgments gone from the land of the living, Karen sweetly pursues her first girlfriend, a fellow member of the Eternal Guild of the Benevolent Undead, who bonds with Karen while stealing coins from a pay toilet at the Art Institute of Chicago. An aspiring artist, Karen frequents the museum with her brother, Deeze, an artist and local mob enforcer who holds court as Karen draws selections from the collection, the re-creations appearing in Ferris' style of finely hatched ballpoint pen on lined spiral notebook paper. With her world under siege by her mysterious father, the Invisible Man, and the possibility of her protector, Deeze, being drafted into the Vietnam War, Karen fixates on depictions of the biblical Judith's seduction and beheading of a general who threatened her village. Ferris' take on pulp and horror magazine covers punctuates the story and echoes all manner of luridness uncovered as Karen deepens her investigation into the heartbreaking life and violent death of her neighbor Anka Silverberg, a Holocaust survivor. Karen comes to suspect Deeze of terrible things, up to and including the murder of a brother Karen remembers only in dreams. Ferris' visual style achieves depth and contour through layering and at maximum effect reaches a rich, leathery aesthetic. Color pops throughout the mostly black-ink pages, and close-ups appear breathtakingly photographic, with smaller, less-detailed panels existing as exquisite doodles. A cliffhanger ending could promise more monsters. Heartfelt horror and spectacular cartooning.

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Starred review from April 1, 2024

Ferris's 2017 debut, My Favorite Thing is Monsters, was an international sensation, acclaimed for her virtuosic illustration, seemingly effortless mastery of plot and tone, and nuanced evocation of her protagonist, Karen Reyes, a 10-year-old girl experiencing an uncommonly tumultuous coming of age in 1960s Chicago. This second volume finds Karen navigating a variety of personal and private upheavals--she's mourning her mother's death, increasingly contemplating her own sexual identity, and obsessively pursuing an investigation into the murder of her upstairs neighbor, a holocaust survivor named Anka Silverberg. Karen's relationship with her older brother Deeze takes center stage in an extended sequence during which the pair tour landmarks and cultural centers around the city discussing favorite painters, various approaches to creating meaningful works of art, human sexuality, and much more. Later, Karen discovers a cassette tape detailing Anka Silverberg's heroic deeds in Nazi Germany, as well as evidence which finally compels her to confront Deeze about the nature of the relationship between he and Anka, and whether or not he played a role in her demise. VERDICT Fans are likely to find this gorgeously illustrated, uniquely immersive conclusion to Karen's story well worth the wait.

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