I chose to read this book as part of my 2015 reading challenge. The prompt was to read a book that was over 100 years old. I was super excited when I found this book at my local Half Price Books for a whopping 50 cents. They had a few different cover options. But I liked this one the best.
Overall I really liked this book. There were a few elements that really stood out to me. For instance, I loved that the book is a series of letters from a brother to his sister. The brother has decided to go and try to make his fortune as captain of a ship. and writes often to his sister to tell her how it is going. Along the way the narrator picks up Victor Frankenstein and begins to relay his strange story through letters to his sister.
Another element of the story that I enjoyed is that layered in the book is stories with in stories. The story starts out telling you about the narrator and his quest to make his fortune, then when he picks up Frankenstein his story starts to unfold. As Frankenstein is telling his story he also relates the story of the monsters experiences and within in his story another story is told about the life of an exiled family from France. I felt this technique was a good way to incorporate more characters and also to kind of explain how the characters personalities developed. It took you far away from that ship stuck on a frozen sea, but then by the end brought you right back to the present. I have never read anything like that and I really enjoyed it.
Moving onto the characters. I think Mary Shelley did a great job developing the characters. Again by using that story in a story technique I thought it was a really creative way to tell about each character. Even though there wasn't a ton of detail given about each character, they were developed enough that I genuinely cared about what the outcome would be for everyone. I absolutely hated Victor Frankenstein. He was a sulky tween girl who was prone to fits of drama. I was annoyed by him the whole time.
Lets talk about the setting. One of my worries going into this book was that there was going to be a bunch of flowery language to explain everything. While staying true to the Gothic horror genre, I found that the description of the places the characters were at, were not over the top. The author did a great job of scaling back the wordiness but still giving you a clear picture of the settings. It was much appreciated.
Lastly I wanted to say that going into the book I knew the story was going to be different than the typical story of Frankenstein you see portrayed on TV and in movies. I am really glad it was. Last year I listened to an audio version of Re-Animator by H.P. Lovecraft. That story is similar but focused more on the science and process of bringing the creature to life. To be honest I was bored to death by it. Mary Shelley's story was more about the the characters and the cause and effect if their choices. It made for a much better story.
Overall I recommend you pick up this book and give it a try. I gave it a 4/5 on Goodreads.
peace, love and trees
Kelli
Kelli
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