Monstress, Book 1

I'm shocked by how careless commonsensemedia's review of the series is. First of all, within the first issue, several naked children, after having been sold as slaves, are brutally decapitated and then dismembered. There's a graphic depiction of their organs being removed to be eaten by a witch, and most disturbingly, the characters engaging in the violence do so extraordinarily casually. The main opponent in the first issue has been cutting off the limbs of a living child to eat and the child pleads with her not to cut off any more of his body parts. She calls him a "whiner." It's extremely reminiscent of the most violent scenes in Sin City. A prison guard brags about raping prisoners with a tazing baton and plans to do the same to the main character and the small children with her. I can't imagine what made the reviews on this site ignore all of this, but this graphic novel series is shockingly inappropriate for even most teenagers. Additionally, in my opinion, the story is not particularly compelling and rides on shock value. The story only develops in small drips in between ruthless violence. The book's ONE redeeming feature is the beautiful art by Sana Takeda. She somehow manages to soften the violence by vaguely blurring some of the worst brutality, but unfortunately, the descriptiveness of the wording makes it impossible for her to cushion the story.