I didn't know much of Marilyn Monroe's life so I found this to be a fun way to learn about her life. She definitely had a sad life from childhood to her death. This graphic novel does jump around quite a bit though and sometimes I couldn't tell the characters apapr which caused some confusion story wise. I did appreciate the style of the drawings and thought they were well done. 
Thanks to Netgalley.com and Europe Comics for my complimentary eARC copy.

It's a biography of Marilyn Monroe in the format of a graphic novel. And I liked the idea of it, but I just didn't really cared about the characters - and that is weird, because I love Marilyn. Something was missing, and that something was feelings.

It is hard to tell someone's biography in a short graphic novel and you can see that by how much text there is and how all over the place everything seems to be. The time jumps are not easily noticed and you feel like you lost some parts of the story. 

Some of the characters looked pretty similar and it was really hard to follow the story because of that.

This is a very interesting graphic novel about the life of Marylin Monroe. I didn’t know much about her early life and learned a lot from reading this comic. After reading this book I’d like to learn more about her.

I enjoyed reading about how sad and dramatic her early life was. Her mother’s life clearly influenced Marylin and her love life choices. You can see parallels between Marylin and her mother, both had rough lives, sad periods, bad love life’s, and many bad choices.

It was a sad read but also enjoyable.  This graphic novel makes me want to learn more and to me that shows this book did a good job.

I do agree with some reviewers who thought the book was fast paced but I think that was done on purpose. There is only so much of her life you can show in a comic book form. I’m also curious how much of this graphic novel was exaggerated and how much was true.

I’d like to read the Charlie Chaplin Stars of History book. I’d like to see what I can learn about him.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book in return for an honest review.

I find Marilyn Monroe interesting and want to know more about her but I found this quite boring and rushed with an art style I couldn't really get into. I think for Marilyn Monroe, the graphic novel has to be longer or to be a written book as more had to be fit in.

Rating: 2.5⭐
Would I Read It Again? No
Would I Recommend it? Not really

Thank you to Net Galley and Europe Comics for the advance copy of this book. 

One of the reasons why I requested this book is because I knew little on Monroe's life and I have found quite a few biographical graphic novels on here to provide a great overview of the highlights of someone's career. 

The Stars of History does just that. This book touched upon pivotal moments in Monroe's career that I had heard about - most were potential rumors - and it was nice to see them addressed in this book and provide a bit more info - and create a timelines of these events. 

This book left me wanting to read more about Monroe's life.

Another nonfiction graphic novel! This one was a historical account of Marilyn Monroe. The art for this one was both beautiful and whimsical. I did appreciate that this was just a brief overview of her life. It wasn't an in-depth account, but it seemed to cover all the main points of her life. I wasn't too familiar with Monroe's story outside of the Hollywood fame, bouts of depression, her death and the rumors of her affair with President JFK. So I found this graphic novel to be informational about her childhood, the beginning of her modeling/acting career, her love affairs and her tragic demise. I knew of her marriage to Joe DiMaggio - the baseball player, but I didn't know of her first marriage to James Dougherty and Arthur Miller. THE ARTHUR MILLER!!!! As a lover of literature, I feel like I should have known this. I empathized with her struggles with miscarriages and the pain it brings. I shed a few tears for our shared misfortunes. Since her death was shrouded in mystery, I think this novel did her death justice in this novel. 
This graphic novel painted her struggles and tragedies in full color. I appreciated the way in which Marilyn Monroe was portrayed.

'The Stars of History: Marilyn Monroe' by Bernard Swysen with illustrations by Paty Christian brings the superstar's life to the pages of a graphic novel.

This is a good introduction to the life of Marilyn Monroe.  From her tragic childhood, to the rest of her somewhat tragic life, Marilyn managed to have a fairly decent Hollywood career and become an icon.  She struggled with being shuffled from house to house while growing up.  She struggled with marriages to controlling men who were verbally and physically abusive.  She struggled to be taken seriously as an actor as she was stereotyped as the dumb beauty.

I liked this story.  It feels a bit one-sided, but many celebrity bios feel that way.  That art is really quite lovely and I love the depiction of Marilyn that is made.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

I’m not normally a graphic novel reader but having an interest in Marilyn’s life I was grateful to be able to read this. 
I really enjoyed this graphic novel, it had a lovely preface before getting into the story. 
It was bright, colourful, informative and wasn’t too much detail when retelling Marilyn’s life.
The filmography at the end with her film posters was a fitting finishing touch. 
I do hope to see more icons from the writer and artist as I for one would pick it up.

This graphic novel is a fast-paced biography of Marilyn Monroe starting from birth until her untimely death.

And by fast-paced, I mean very, VERY rushed account of her life. I like the art style for the expressive faces but the body proportions are iffy in places; like all of a sudden someone will have a HUGE behind or look like their back is broken. Unlike something like Irena - a biographical comic that is entertaining and detailed enough to act as a jumping-off point for further research - this book is more like a cliff-notes of a real biography. It's ok but superficial. 3.5 out of 5.

I enjoyed this book and found it really eye opening into Marilyn Monroe's life. I didn't really know much about her before reading this other than the fact that she was an actress and I (like everyone) had seen the iconic photo of her in the white dress. This graphic novel is beautiful and I really liked the art style. 

***** SPOILERS BELOW ******

The story itself opens with an insight into Norma Jean's mother's life and from the very beginning it becomes clear that life isn't easy and there are challenges in the families life. Norma is passed around from person to person and at one point is even placed into an orphanage. Her mother and grandmother both have mental health challenges which result in them being hospitalised during their lives. Being young, Norma is unsure what is happening in her life other than that no one seems to want her and she keeps receiving unwanted attention from boys and men because of her looks and her chest developing quickly. She is forced into a marriage when there is no one to care for her which leads to her being very unhappy as a housewife with no connection with her husband. During the war, he becomes a soldier and she begins her modelling career after a photographer noticed her at her work. An agency picks her up and convinces her to get a divorce in order to develop her career. After this she is picked up by fox and begins her movie career. During this time she is told to change her name, henceforth Marilyn Monroe is born.

Marilyn has many marriages and is in and out of love with various men, some of which are abusive or controlling. This causes her to spiral into abusing anti-depressant medication and drinking. During one of these relationships, Marilyn experiences multiple miscarriages (we learn she has endometriosis which she has surgeries for) which further worsens her mental health and substance abuse. She accidentally overdoses and ends up being hospitalised at one point with little support from those around her. Her death was very sad and sudden and is still speculated about today: was it suicide, accidental overdose, or were The Kennedy's involved in an assassination?

Marilyn Monroe is still an icon today but I feel like many of us do not know her full life story nor her struggles. It just goes to show that you never know what someone is going through even if they appear happy and successful.

The artwork of this novel is stunning and did such a great job rendering Hollywood's stars in very accurate portrayals. I only know the basics of Marilyn Monroe's history, so I can't agree with the accuracy of it, but it provided a lot of details and seemed to stick true to her story. Marilyn, born Norma Jean, grows up the daughter of a single mother who suffers from mental health issues. Shuffled between relatives, friends, and foster care, Norma Jean dreams of becoming a big star one day. Getting married at 16 in order to escape her home life she continues to struggle throughout her short life time. Hoping to make it big she changes her name and spends her days running from one studio to another asking for roles trying to be a star. Jumping from role to role and man to man, Marilyn became a well loved star who died too early.  Her infamy continues on, Unfortunately because this is a Europe Comic title I can't purchase this for our library.

Thank you to publisher and NetGalley for a copy.

A quick and easy read, I learnt more of Monroe's childhood than ever before. There are criticisms on Goodreads of this being only a snapshot but honestly as a graphic novel I feel this is expected. Take it with a pinch of salt and if you wish to learn more than google is your friend.

Marilyn Monroe is such an interesting character. I am not going to lie; I didn’t know much about her before reading this book (kind of the reason why I chose to read it). I have read another book in the series: Charlie Chaplin, and I have to say, I liked the graphic novel about Marilyn Monroe more.

The story is, hence, nothing new as it is a biography but I thought it was well presented. I never felt lost as to where in the story we were and I loved the drawing style. It is really cute and colourful, very fitting to illustrate Marilyn Monroe I think. We follow her from her when she was born to the day she died. Bernard Swysen pictured her as quite a nice person through the graphic novel, though sometimes I thought she didn’t really care about the people who did everything they could for her. What I liked the most about her is that she gave everything to fulfil her dream and did not care about money, refusing contract and proposal that didn’t follow her principles. She really is a star of history. She paved the way for many women in the acting sector.

I recommend this book. It is a fun and entertaining way to learn about Marilyn Monroe, though it will not go in great details about the events that happened.

4/5

This graphic novel is great introduction to the fascinating life of Marilyn Monroe. I enjoyed reading about her childhood, adulthood and the road through her career. However it is a really short novel so it doesn't contain all information and there are a lot of time jumps so it is sometimes confusing. It might be a good start to learn anything about this Hollywood icon but if you want to learn more it definitively won't be enough. The art style is amazing and Marilyn Monroe is illustrated so pretty. 

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me copy of book in exchange for review. All opinions are my own,

An excellent depiction of the life of Marilyn Monroe. Spanning the course of her life, readers get an inside look to Marilyn's struggles to make it big in Hollywood and the eventual fallout that fame has. The artwork is beautifully done, doing justice to the legend that is Marilyn Monroe. This book is a must-read for any Marilyn fans or anyone interested in old Hollywood.

That comic book was beautiful. I love to read about strong women, and they're interesting stories. I really like this book and I'm sure I will recommend it to my audiences.

It was so accurate, I read on her life before and it was so accurate, the graphics were stunning. Overall really enjoyed it, would love to read more by this author.

This biographical graphic novel of Marilyn Monroe’s extravagant, glamorous but also sad life certainly captures some of the key highs and lows of a Hollywood starlet. Showcasing some of her most iconic poses, dresses and dramas, I really felt like I understood Marilyn’s life even from her childhood and some of the motivations behind her decline. 

I really like the illustrations; the style feels very much in keeping with the period and was a bold choice which wasn’t at all delicate in its approach, which is brilliant. However, I did find the prose quite difficult to feel compelled to keep reading. I understand and appreciate some of the points the author is trying to make, particularly surrounding Marilyn’s mistreatment in the industry, in her relationships but also with the psychological damage miscarriage and endometriosis caused her to endure. I think actually the author should be commended for capturing this quite so well, but I still found the delivery to be a little dry and this hugely detracted from my enjoyment. 

Regardless, I can see how this series of stories about celebrities will be insightful for a lot of readers who are fans of those people. But, for me, my interest in Hollywood and fame is pretty mediocre at best so I won’t dabble in further instalments for now.

ARC provided from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting and great way to know more about this great icon that became known to the world and that to this day is still remembered; I thought the art was very cool, the composition suited me, without a doubt the time (decade) in which the work takes place is reflected.
It's a good way to learn more about this icon, if you don't know anything about it, this is a great way.

I received this advanced copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I couldn’t wait to read this. I love comic books/ graphic novels and I enjoy reading about the stars “of old”. Now Marilyn Monroe is one of best known names from that era. What comes to mind when someone says her name? To me, it’s the platinum hair, the beauty mark, the “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” and the white dress from The Seven Year Itch (1955). But she was so much more than that.

We learn many things about Marilyn while reading this. She had a horrible childhood, which was way worse than I thought. She was abused (and possibly raped) before the age of 14. She was married off by her legal guardian at the age of 16 (because she didn’t want to bring Marilyn with her?!).

We see her going to work, becoming a model, fighting to get contracts and roles. We see her love of reading. I love that she wanted roles that had substance instead of the “blonde bombshell” roles she kept getting. She founded her own film production company, she took method acting classes, she won a Golden Globe. We also see the attention her private life gets from the media, including her marriages, her divorces and her death.

Now, as Marilyn Monroe had such a complicated and interesting life, 100 pages definitely wasn’t enough to convey all of it. I was expecting her life being divided more or less evenly (1/3 childhood, 1/3 from her first marriage to being a star, 1/3 troubled times to her death). Perhaps that’s the logical part of my brain talking. There was too much on her youth, though it explains her background very thoroughly, and there was not enough about her death and investigation. The timelime wasn’t quite clear, but at least it didn’t go back and forth.

Even though I thought there were a few issues as previously mentioned, I would still recommend this graphic novel. It is a great introduction to who Marilyn Monroe was. I am also interested in reading other books from the series The Stars of History (Charlie Chaplin, Brigitte Bardot). It is also worth mentioning this series is originally published in French (Les étoiles de l’histoire) and his other series La véritable histoire vraie (Attila, Dracula, Hitler) could be interesting as well.

The Stars of History: Marilyn Monroe has already been published by Europe Comics.