Thank you to the publishers for my ARC.

I was excited to read this but that excitement didn’t last long unfortunately. I don’t feel like this book really added anything new in terms of perspective or adaptation to Frankenstein. The writing isn’t the best and the story is slow and not very engaging. I struggled to get through it sadly.

In 1816, Mary Shelley leaves for Geneva with her partner Percy Bysshe Shelley, her son William, and her sister Claire, purportedly to join Lord Byron.

What ensues is a painful tangle of love and loyalty set against eerie storms and debauchery. The various love-hate relationships, especially between the sisters and between Mary and Shelley, are frustrating in the circularity. Although perhaps that is the point; there are those we cannot walk away from even though we should.

I thought more of the novel would be about Mary writing Frankenstein but we have to wait almost to the end to move past her emotional agonising and to the true Mary and her inner monster.

Knowing some of the real story, I was also confused by some of the plot. Prepare for historical artistic license which maximises the pain of the love triangles and betrayals.

Fans of this novel will also enjoy Clairmont by Lesley McDowell.

I was really attracted to the premise of this book, but sadly it fell a little short on execution for me. The writing style was oddly detached which made me feel quite removed from the plot and dulled emotional investment, erring rather on the side of 'tell' rather than 'show'. I consequently found I couldn't root for Mary herself, despite being a historical figure who is pretty easy to naturally empathise with in many respects. In part one there is frequent movement between time periods alongside inclusion of extracts from journals etc. which felt jarring and disrupted the flow for me. I also understand the intention in including quotes from Frankenstein at the beginning of the chapters, however this came across a little heavy-handed. It did come across as well researched, and I think perhaps if you are not so familiar with the context behind Shelley writing Frankenstein you may find this interesting.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Lea has obviously done her research and intersperses extracts from Shelley's letters and journals - all the same, this doesn't really manage to breathe new life into the familiar story of the complicated lives of the Shelleys, Byron and Claire Clairmont. The writing style is adequate but not distinctive and the thrust is quite soap opera-ish (though there is that element to the history, to be fair!) - most of all, this simplifies Frankenstein, a book about which a lot has been written and made available for a popular, non-academic audience. I'm not sure what this book is adding.