Vol. 1: Awakening ★★★★★
Vol. 2: The Blood ★★★★★
Vol. 3: Haven ★★★★★

When I originally read Monstress, Vol. 1 a couple of years ago, I gave it 3.5 stars. I loved the artwork and the character designs, but had a hard time getting into the story, world-building, mythos, etc., and also really struggled through the tougher triggers (such as child trafficking, child abuse/torture/murder, assault, etc.). That said, this is the perfect example of why I update my reviews when I reread books: because, sometimes, our opinions can drastically change during rereads, and there's nothing wrong with updating your reviews to reflect that!

All of that aside, I'm pleased to say that I did not hesitate to lift my rating to 5 stars when I reread this beautiful, incredibly in-depth graphic novel. I thought the lore was incredible, I adored the world-building, and the hard-to-stomach aspects of the plot didn't alarm me as much (presumably due to my consuming more "dark" content lately than I did in 2016/17 and becoming less easily bothered, maybe?). I would still caution anyone who is triggered by child abuse/death to think long and hard before picking this one up, but if you can read those topics, this is a really incredible story with a lot of complex characters and nuances to the battling sides. I can't wait to continue the series.