Paperback, 304 pages
English language
Published by Delacorte Press.
This was a bit of a funny reading experience. I can't quite put my finger on the reasons why, but the first half felt like a bit of a slog, and culminated in a couple of really grim scenes that almost caused me to stop reading (and yes, I know it's funny to complain about grimness in a gothic novel, but bear with me). The second half almost felt like a whole other novel. I tore through it, only to be rather disappointed by what felt like an overly sudden ending.
Content warning CW: Abuse, murder, etc (What you would expect from Frankenstein)
This is Frankenstein told from Elizabeth Lavenza's point of view. If you don't remember her, or only recognize the name from the Persona games, that's okay. The point of the book is that she feels like a supporting character in someone else's narrative. This is about having your own narrative. And it's beautiful for that.
I will say, my copy seemed extremely long, so I was shocked when I finished: because I had another 200 pages to go. Those 200 pages are for the original Frankenstein.
I've never read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein before, so there were several things about this book I wasn't expecting. I looked up a sparknotes summary of Frankenstein, and was quite surprised to see that this particular retelling was actually very accurate to the original story. I'm perhaps more familiar with the story of Frankenstein as it's told in cinema(though, no I haven't watched the original movie, either), so I had no idea that Elizabeth Frankenstein was, in fact, a character in Shelley's story. Or that the child killed by the monster was Victor's brother. Or that Igor WASN'T a character in the original story? Fascinating.
I don't know if one would get more enjoyment out of this book if they'd read Frankenstein first, but I found this book immensely interesting and fun to read.
... ACTUALLY, Frankenstein IS the monster
