My Favorite Thing is Monsters

All Horrors Great and Small

My Favorite Thing is Monsters is a graphic novel about a kid named Karen Reyes, who loves horror and uses monster imagery to make sense of her experience growing up as queer and mixed race in the late 60s. Emile Ferris blends high art and pulp art into an engaging and personal story filled with meditations on monstrosity and cruelty. The whole comic is sketched on spiral paper, and at times it feels like reading a friend’s notebook.

I enjoyed seeing familiar Chicago landmarks as Karen travels around the city, trying to solve the mystery of her murdered neighbor. I would recommend this book for fans of dark autobiographical comics like Fun Home or Stiches by David Small.