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aplpaca's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Racism, and Child death
Moderate: Homophobia
hmatt's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
I love the concept of this novel: it's very original and a fun gothic take on historical fiction for the classical lit nerds. It does drag a bit in the middle for me, so I think it could have been shorter. The queer rep is there but only just barely, honestly, and I wish it had been explored more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Sexism, Animal death, Grief, Blood, and Body horror
Moderate: Classism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Death of parent
areen's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and Misogyny
Moderate: Medical content
therebeckening's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Animal cruelty, and Sexism
Moderate: Xenophobia, Violence, Chronic illness, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Toxic relationship, and Child death
Minor: Lesbophobia and Miscarriage
Gambling, financial abuse,milesjmoran's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Animal death, Medical trauma, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Racism, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexism, and Pregnancy
maddiereadswords's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The pacing of this book was so painfully slow for the first, like, third of it, but once it picked up, it was SO worth the read!! I do wish that we'd gotten more of the development of Mary and Maisie's relationship, but I can't lie, the beautiful writing, the realistic characters, and the fact that the concept of "lesbian Victorian paleontologist Frankenstein-ing a dinosaur" feels like it was developed in a lab specifically to appeal to me personally allows me to forgive a lot. Like...be gay, do crimes against god, you know?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Animal death, Child death, Misogyny, and Sexism
skywhales's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
WHOO oh all sorts of feelings about this one man.
this came on the heels of the first book i dnfed in quite a while (which i won't review since i don't usually review books i dnf. principle of the thing or whatever) and so maybe i'm just spoiled by this book not being That book. but also ugh i loved this
this has gotta be one of my favorite frankenstein adaptations (if this counts as that). it takes a definitively unique spin on the whole "victorian scientist creating life" premise and delves deeper into the real life scientific societies of england at the time, which was really enjoyable to see. and god, i LOVED the creature. we need more frankendinosaurs right now immediately. charming, exciting and fun nearly all the way through.
i have this funny thought that these characters could have easily been in a less well written book and would have been a total mess. but they weren't and i'm very happy about that. it took me a little while to fully come around to mary since i am a little tired of one person automatically being the only morally upstanding person in the room at a time where a lot of backwards opinions were commonplace. but i found i could relate to her anger with the fucked up practices of her community, and yes, i continue to adore women of science. i also like that they specified her love for her child was different than her love for the creature and shot down the idea that she was basically using it to replace her kid because if they had compared the creature to her daughter i would have cringed SO hard. honestly i feel like the author did a good job writing a character who isn't really typically motherly and wants to exist as a person outside of that. and while losing her child is always going to affect her, there was a lot going on with her that didn't have anything to do with that.
maisie was so sweetiepie...the sort of character i'm so glad was allowed to be a love interest. she's allowed to be less physically strong and be chronically ill but at the same time she's so full of life and perky and multifaceted and lovely...also sapphic stories where the love interest is the more feminine one always make me jump up in the air for joy. though i know it's victorian times and there's a base standard of femininity for both of them but you get what i am saying. you understand. henry was AUGH! it's so crazy because like. most of the time when a character has a crappy husband it kind of smacks you over the head with it but henry was maybe one of the most realistically flawed of these kinds of characters i've seen and it legitimately took me by surprise. a lot of his banter with mary was genuinely sweet! i could genuinely see that at one time there was love there! and there still was and still might be but those flaws begin to become less and less charming as mary becomes more and more disillusioned. he also got a lot worse whenever clarke entered the picture which i also appreciated even as it pissed me off because it's true that a lot of men who are otherwise somewhat decent people can easily go downhill when surrounded by an echo chamber of way worse friends. speaking of clarke i wanted to shred him into little bits so that characterization did its job.
if i had a qualm with the book i'd say that it does -sometimes- seem to kind of reinforce the idea that men are the ones thinking of Logic and Facts and women are the ones guided by Emotions. a lot of choices mary made were spur of the moment emotional ones that ended up just making everything worse but also i'm realizing even as i write this that it makes me sound like a major asshole. maybe i'm just too used to baru-type characters who make awful decisions in a different way. and overall i did understand her anger in most of the situations she found herself in. also i guess henry's emotions get the better of him a lot. i also didn't really love that mary apologized to maisie before vice versa after she showed her the creature and maisie reacted badly. honestly i feel like she had a lot more to apologize for. yes maybe mary shouldn't have been lying to her the whole time but also she ended up literally being right to keep it from her because she reacted with such disgust!! it was nice that she came around to the creature after watching mary interact with it and it would still be nice for that to be the thing that changed her mind but it made me feel weird. maybe it was supposed to show that mary is willing to be the bigger person for maisie? but it still felt like she was the one less in the wrong so it felt more frustrating than anything.
honestly a really lovely book. full of things i enjoy that i haven't seen enough of. and a couple quotes i liked so much i wanted to take a picture of them (because this book is also not my book it belongs to the library).
this came on the heels of the first book i dnfed in quite a while (which i won't review since i don't usually review books i dnf. principle of the thing or whatever) and so maybe i'm just spoiled by this book not being That book. but also ugh i loved this
this has gotta be one of my favorite frankenstein adaptations (if this counts as that). it takes a definitively unique spin on the whole "victorian scientist creating life" premise and delves deeper into the real life scientific societies of england at the time, which was really enjoyable to see. and god, i LOVED the creature. we need more frankendinosaurs right now immediately. charming, exciting and fun nearly all the way through.
i have this funny thought that these characters could have easily been in a less well written book and would have been a total mess. but they weren't and i'm very happy about that. it took me a little while to fully come around to mary since i am a little tired of one person automatically being the only morally upstanding person in the room at a time where a lot of backwards opinions were commonplace. but i found i could relate to her anger with the fucked up practices of her community, and yes, i continue to adore women of science. i also like that they specified her love for her child was different than her love for the creature and shot down the idea that she was basically using it to replace her kid because if they had compared the creature to her daughter i would have cringed SO hard. honestly i feel like the author did a good job writing a character who isn't really typically motherly and wants to exist as a person outside of that. and while losing her child is always going to affect her, there was a lot going on with her that didn't have anything to do with that.
maisie was so sweetiepie...the sort of character i'm so glad was allowed to be a love interest. she's allowed to be less physically strong and be chronically ill but at the same time she's so full of life and perky and multifaceted and lovely...also sapphic stories where the love interest is the more feminine one always make me jump up in the air for joy. though i know it's victorian times and there's a base standard of femininity for both of them but you get what i am saying. you understand. henry was AUGH! it's so crazy because like. most of the time when a character has a crappy husband it kind of smacks you over the head with it but henry was maybe one of the most realistically flawed of these kinds of characters i've seen and it legitimately took me by surprise. a lot of his banter with mary was genuinely sweet! i could genuinely see that at one time there was love there! and there still was and still might be but those flaws begin to become less and less charming as mary becomes more and more disillusioned. he also got a lot worse whenever clarke entered the picture which i also appreciated even as it pissed me off because it's true that a lot of men who are otherwise somewhat decent people can easily go downhill when surrounded by an echo chamber of way worse friends. speaking of clarke i wanted to shred him into little bits so that characterization did its job.
if i had a qualm with the book i'd say that it does -sometimes- seem to kind of reinforce the idea that men are the ones thinking of Logic and Facts and women are the ones guided by Emotions. a lot of choices mary made were spur of the moment emotional ones that ended up just making everything worse but also i'm realizing even as i write this that it makes me sound like a major asshole. maybe i'm just too used to baru-type characters who make awful decisions in a different way. and overall i did understand her anger in most of the situations she found herself in. also i guess henry's emotions get the better of him a lot.
honestly a really lovely book. full of things i enjoy that i haven't seen enough of. and a couple quotes i liked so much i wanted to take a picture of them (because this book is also not my book it belongs to the library).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Sexism, and Racism
Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual harassment, Animal death, and Homophobia
n0elle's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I have mixed feelings about this one. For one, I absolutely love classic retellings, especially if they’re sapphic and this one was a very interesting take on the original story of Frankenstein.
Now, while I do know the author tried hard to make it appear historically correct, I found it absolutely exhausting to read hundreds of pages of men dictating the protagonist’s life, telling her what she can and can’t do, how she should behave, what (little) she’s worth.
I’m all for women in STEM, driven by ambition and scientific ideas that lead through breakthroughs. BUT if her ideas and success are always overshadowed by a man or even taken by a man, while she just sits idly by.. that’s infuriating, historically correct but still infuriating. And while the main character did get mad about these things, she always stayed quiet. In the rare moments she didn’t, she was belittled and reprimanded so much, I felt the shame of being a woman bleed through the pages.
Maybe the writing was just too good and too real and it made me feel so many emotions, some of which I could have gone without.
Now, while I do know the author tried hard to make it appear historically correct, I found it absolutely exhausting to read hundreds of pages of men dictating the protagonist’s life, telling her what she can and can’t do, how she should behave, what (little) she’s worth.
I’m all for women in STEM, driven by ambition and scientific ideas that lead through breakthroughs. BUT if her ideas and success are always overshadowed by a man or even taken by a man, while she just sits idly by.. that’s infuriating, historically correct but still infuriating. And while the main character did get mad about these things, she always stayed quiet. In the rare moments she didn’t, she was belittled and reprimanded so much, I felt the shame of being a woman bleed through the pages.
Maybe the writing was just too good and too real and it made me feel so many emotions, some of which I could have gone without.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Sexual harassment, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Violence, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Death, Grief, Animal cruelty, Blood, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Sexism, Classism, Death of parent, Misogyny, Racism, and Terminal illness
random19379's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Classism, Sexism, Miscarriage, and Racism
_teoeo's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
"Frankenstein" meets "Ammonite"!
I loved every page of this book. It truly is a little masterpiece! It's so full of feminism and science and history and love and betrayal. Oh and Mary and Masie, they are my favorites! I wish I had annotated it but guess I'll have to read it a second time now!
I loved every page of this book. It truly is a little masterpiece! It's so full of feminism and science and history and love and betrayal. Oh and Mary and Masie, they are my favorites! I wish I had annotated it but guess I'll have to read it a second time now!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Misogyny, Blood, Sexism, Chronic illness, Grief, and Gun violence
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Death of parent