My Favorite Thing Is Monsters

Karen Reyes is the protagonist of My Favorite Things Is Monsters. She experiences a coming-of-age as she uncovers dark truths about her family and neighbors. Karen is a young girl of 10 years old. She is passionate about horror, art, and family, and her “favorite thing is monsters” (title). She gets her love and talent for art from her older brother, Deeze, whom she spends a great deal of time with. In the beginning of her diary, Karen is naïve to what lies ahead. Although she is regularly exposed to fantasy horror, as well as the horrors of bullying and alienation, these experiences pale in comparison to what she goes through as she discovers more about Anka’s murder, Deeze’s secrets, and her mother’s slow death from cancer. It is through Karen’s perspective that the story is told, and the graphic novel acts as her diary of art and words. Karen is insightful beyond her years, largely due to her brother’s exposing her to art at such a young age. He teaches her how to think in unconventional, creative, and meaningful ways, and she uses these skills to uncover the secrets kept about her brother Victor and Anka’s life as a sex worker and Holocaust survivor.