Reviews with content warning for Islamophobia - Frankenstein

It was an interesting read. Since it has influenced many other books and films that I love I admired it to some extent. However, the pacing felt a bit weird and also the racial stereotyping made this book a lot less enjoyable for me.

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mimina's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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nzhuo5392's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I've studied this book in about four or five classes at this point and I'm still learning from it. Shelley exposes the instability of the male ego so many times over it's actually insane. She tries and fails to spark discourse about issues that she, as an upper class white woman, doesn't have a lot of lived familiarity with (especially with the Safie storyline), but the little jabs at sexism and masculinity are done wonderfully.

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caribbeangirlreading's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

DISCLAIMER – This is a review of the original 1818 text, not the heavily edited 1831 edition.

THOUGHTS

· Victor Frankenstein is a self-centered, whiny, man-boy. I despise him.

· There is kind of a reverse original sin theme going on – “the being” was born good, it was the way people treated him that turned him into a monster. And I don’t buy Shelley’s theory for one minute. Yes, people who are hurt usually hurt others, but the violence spree that the being goes on is completely out of proportion to the way he has been treated. It just feels like the author is making excuses for men who behave badly.

· Once I started reading, I realized this is not a text of Victorian literature (my mistake), but very firmly rooted in the Romanticism period. Between that and the fact that this book was written by an 18-year-old, I found it to be way too “emo” for my taste. The writing was full of angst and over-the top melodrama and it drove me bananas.

· The book is divided into three parts. The first two were obviously written by the same person. The third part, however, is obviously written by someone else. The level or writing and maturity is head and shoulders above the first two parts. My theory is that Mary’s husband, Percy Shelly, wrote that third section, or at least it was very heavily edited by him to the point that it feels like someone else wrote it.

· The original text was highly criticized. Mary Shelley caved and re-wrote many parts of the novel. And when I say Mary Shelley re-wrote, it most probably means that Percy Shelley highly edited the new text. So . . . if you have read the 1831 version chances are that what you like is really Percy’s heavy-handed editing, not Mary’s writing.

· These are all my personal theories, and I’m sticking to them.

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cynicalraven's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

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sofipitch's review

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Honestly this book is gothic horror at it's best. I enjoyed it so much. The constant parallels between the beautiful descriptions of nature and the horror of the story , all brought on by the pride of man. (Most of the important events happen in the middle of the night during a storm for extra super-gothic imagery.) It's just *chef's kiss*

While Shelley often doesn't put too much detail into how the creature looked that it would make you feel afraid, I think the most horrifying part was the description of the first few days after coming to life, not understand his senses or anything around him. I'm so glad we can't remember what it is like to be a baby! It sounds so scary and stressful, no wonder babies cry all the time.

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chloewakham's review against another edition

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4.0

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