Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable--and it works. She is taken in by the Frankenstein family and rewarded with a warm bed, delicious food, and dresses of the finest silk. Soon she and Victor are inseparable.
But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth's survival depends on managing Victor's dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost . . . as the world she knows is consumed by darkness. (Summary and pic from goodreads.com)
My Review: This is my second original story re-telling of the year,
and apparently that’s become a thing now. While fairytale re-tellings are still
coming out and still tons of fun (I have one upcoming review in a month that’s
a fun read, so look for that!) but now we’ve moved into re-tellings of original
horror stories. This isn’t your Pride and
Prejudice and Zombies fare, but more like a re-imagining and fleshing out
of a story. The first one I read, The
Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel: A Story of Sleepy Hollow was a fun new
take, and I think this one is also fun and worth a read.
And now it is time to confess that I haven’t actually
read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It’s
a tragedy, I know. I did download it onto my phone’s kindle app, but I don’t
like reading on devices cause I’m an old-fashioned gal. That being said, I have
read extensive summaries and lived a whole lifetime immersed in the story of Frankenstein (haven’t we all?) so I feel
like I wasn’t at a complete loss as to the original story and how this differed
from it.
The Dark Descent of
Elizabeth Frankenstein is told from the point of view of Elizabeth
Frankenstein which, as you might know, is not how the original story is,
although I can imagine that if it were en vogue at the time and had Shelley
chosen to do it via first person female, I’m sure she would have had an epic
female protagonist. That being said, the Elizabeth Frankenstein of this novel
was smart, cunning, and a woman who had to do the best with what she was given
in her circumstances. This novel is certainly a horror novel (although nothing
too horrible or grotesque happens in gory detail), and Elizabeth plays a large
part in that. She is a character you admire but also feel sorry for, as are
many of the characters in this book.
The story itself is interesting in that it isn’t exactly
like you’re seeing a direct focus on Frankenstein and his monster, but more
like that story is happening and your focus is off to the side, so although you
are aware and definitely read about and take part in some Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s
monster story, it is often done on the peripheral, just out of focus but
present enough to be scary and somewhat disturbing in that you can’t just see
it straight on. I found this to be an interesting perspective and I liked the
somewhat frantic feelings it created for Elizabeth because as a reader you are
well aware of what is going on just from being familiar with the original Frankenstein, but she doesn’t know it
and she is discovering for the first time. In this sense you are both
introduced to a re-telling of the old classic as well as offered a different
viewpoint on what was going on.
The end of this book is a little bit strange, and I’m
going to be super vague here. I found it to be somewhat unrealistic, but then
again, when you’re reading about Frankenstein and all the things he created, I
guess unrealistic and strange has to be overlooked. It didn’t seem consistent
to the rest of the book, though, even though I did appreciate what was
happening and how the characters fared.
Overall, I would say this is a fun addition to the
Frankenstein story. I don’t think it will be a long-time classic like the
original Shelley, but it was certainly accessible and vivid, and a fun read for
when you’re looking for something spooky and in the horror genre minus the
excessive descriptive gore.
My Rating: 3.5
Stars
For the sensitive
reader: This is a horror novel, but all things considered, it is pretty clean.
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