32k reviews for:

Frankenstein

Mary Shelley

3.86 AVERAGE

jasibun's review against another edition

5.0

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“But soon, I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. My spirit will sleep in peace; or if it thinks, it will not surely think thus. Farewell.”

klara_anderson's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

torak88's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

maddiehatesreading's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

audio_book_girlie14's review against another edition

1.0

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While i try to appreciate classics, i felt i was napping most of this book.
The audio book was a great performance but, the story…. Meh.
And HOW did this story turn into the Frankenstein story we now know?!?!

orcinus_olive's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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The characters are absolutely marvelous. Victor and the nameless Creature especially awake very profound emotions with everything they do and experience, in what they say and think and how they do so. The two of them are just so fascinating. It’s rare to find fictional characters with so much depth and development. The great amount of insight we get into their minds surely helps with that.

But it is not just Victor and the Creature who shine. Pretty much every named character is so full of personality in the best possible way. This goes for the more important ones like Elisabeth and Felix’ family, but also for the more obscure ones like Victor’s university professors, who only really exists for three or four pages but are both clearly separate and distinguishable beings from one another. Really, it is hard to think of a character in here who is ‘just fine’. 

A great contributor to this feeling is certainly the novel’s narration and prose style. Each of the various narrators tell their stories in such a compelling way that it’s hard to put into words what they do and how, but their choices of words and formulation of sentences are truly magnificent. Every sensation of the weather, every town and forest just feel so alive and wondrous, and just the slightest bit unsettling. This is undoubtedly one of the more well realized pieces of writing in the world of fiction. 

But even beyond that, the plots this world and these characters revolve around feel unique and fascinating to this day. The events of the plot are always an adventure worth experiencing. It is a privilege to be able to see both Victor’s good days as well as the bad – and the same can be said for his Creation. Every individual event as well as the overarching way they all tie in with each other is just so compelling. Even if sometimes you already have a clear idea of what will happen, it in no way diminishes the impact of what happens because it ties in so well with the arcs of the characters and the reader’s study of them. 

berebo's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous challenging dark sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jasonben10's review against another edition

5.0

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Way better than expected.
Great writing & story. meditation on limits of human knowledge, can science go too far, are there things we shouldn't ever know about the world. Ambition is not always a good thing sometimes for the good of society/humanity/family etc. one should call it off and turn back. What is discovery worth.

right and wrong, isolation, anger, vengeance
rationality being the division between humanity and others. The creature saw Frankenstein as God but were gods to every other living being they just can't express it

tons of ways to analyze this book, I can see why it's a classic.
well played Mary

soup_of_mandrake's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

ashjagtiani's review against another edition

3.25

dark medium-paced