Monstress Vol IV

Monstress Vol IV

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Title: Monstress Vol 4

Author: Marjorie Liu
Illustrator: Sana Takeda
Published: 2019
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Steam punk
Format: Kindle &comixology

Review*:
   Ah, how relieved I am of the direction this series is taking. I was irritated with the first novel because it felt like we just had events thrown at us over and over without any true promise of getting clarification of where the story was going. We started off with cannibal witches? Why is her arm missing and where did she pick up this parasite? Whats the difference between Humans and Cumeae? 
  When Maika hops on the boat to sail to the island we get a little more clarity along with a lot more events/information dump but you kind of start to think "Okay, I just gotta ride through this and it'll all be explained". 
  Now in Volume IV, I feel like we're really starting to see where this story is taking shape. I don't know if that's just the way the story was naturally written or if Majorie received enough feedback that the event/info dump was over-whelming but I appreciate the turn of writing. We get a tiny bit more about Kippa's background, though it's still this large black hole none of us know more about. The last chapter of V4 they elude that foxes can manifest powers but I don't recall the rest of the foxes we've seen so far having them.
  What the difference between an Ancient one and an old god still seems a little bit murky, along with how Maiko is different with her 'old god possession' vs. the woman trapped in Maiko's fathers lab. We understand most of them are bad, but like... why?
  Maiko's father, or old man, or even better... OM is a fucking skeeze. I appreciate that he is somewhat trying to help Maiko try to understand a bit better the legacy she's been born into and what housing an old god means. It's a little more murky because before we met him, I thought that only Maiko's mom hosted the god, but now he's saying he did as well and somehow Maiko took that from him. What I didn't care for the most was that Maiko has finally made it pretty clear that she thinks devouring others is against her morals. Most of her reservations are based on how others have created a slave trade for humans to either mutilate for their body parts or to fully devour. Why this happens with most others is somewhat unclear, but OM thinks it helps him be more powerful. 
  I think Maiko's has also taken some ownership of her own narrative, especially at the end of V4. She rescued someone who originally wanted to kill her despite not really having any reason to other than what was happening to her was wrong to Maiko. We get to see more of her agency and now that she's paired up with a little 'gang' I'm excited to see where they go.
  Although I sit here somewhat confused, I am really looking forward to reading the next book and see where the story is going. I hope we get a little more clarity before too much of a second dump happens to us.

*This section may contain spoilers.