3.86 AVERAGE

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me Man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?


In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Adam beseeches God after his exile. He claims that God bears at least part of the blame for his fall from grace, since Adam did not ask to be born and, if never born, could not transgress. So too does the Monster tell Frankenstein that, being the creator, it is his responsibility to ease the creature's suffering.

I had assumed, likely owing to representations in popular media, that Frankenstein would be a horror story. And it was, just not in the way I had expected.

The writing oozes Romanticism. It has a sceptical view of modern developments in science, and is in fact a cautionary tale against the same. The fevered pursuit for knowledge to an unhealthy extent is shunned. Nature is personified as a woman and attempting to unravel her secrets is likened to an invasion of privacy. With unrelaxed and breathless eagerness, [Frankenstein] pursued nature to her hiding places, and lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit.

Such deep emphasis is placed on human emotions that a person's inner tumult or rapture is often reflected in nature. In this book appear some of the most beautifully structured English sentences, albeit sometimes difficult to decipher. There is a dramatic overflow of feelings and a heightened appreciation of the sublime. The characters through the majority of the book are in an oppressed state of mind, and their anguish is described exceptionally well.
Here is a line Frankenstein writes after creating his creature, his paranoia vivid:

The cup of life was poisoned forever, and although the sun shone upon me, as upon the happy and gay of heart, I saw around me nothing but a dense and frightful darkness, penetrated by no light but the glimmer of two eyes that glared upon me.

There is a sense of impending doom and a creepy undertone throughout, with occasional macabre imagery of bones and corpses. Naturally so, since this book is credited as one of the torchbearers of the Gothic genre in fiction.

Much discussed themes are the God-complex of Frankenstein and the creature's innocence. People despise the creature more than he deserves. They recoil in horror at the very sight of him, when all he longs for is acceptance. The creature doesn’t need to be monstrous for people to hate him. He becomes a Monster because he is hated, because he is abandoned by his own creator.

At first, there is nothing abhorrent about him but his appearance. He is more well-read and eloquent than most people I know. He is mild-mannered and benevolent, excited by simple pleasures. He starts off his life perfectly ignorant of the ways of the world and it is by observing the humans around him that he learns all he knows. Are humans, then, the real monsters of the story?

Listen to me, Frankenstein. You accuse me of murder; and yet you would, with a satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature. Oh, praise the eternal justice of man!
adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The writing is so unbelievably beautiful as it is so poetically written to the point that it was quite challenging for me to read that I had to read it aloud to be able to comprehend the writing. But such an enjoyable reading journey and I learned a lot from it. 
medium-paced
adventurous mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: N/A
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

i hate you victor.
dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Too many words. Victor is one of the most frustratingly illogical characters I have ever read about, would’ve given 2 stars if it weren’t for ✨Henry✨
mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I’d be a better father than Victor
dark reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes