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feministfaereads87 's review for:
The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein
by Kiersten White
As a person who read Frankenstein by Mary Shelly earlier in the year for AP Lit, I was immensely excited to read this book, and in true Kiersten White style this book was heart-wrenchingly fabulous and I LOVED it.
I know I appreciated this book more because I read Frankenstein, and I think that you should have to read Frankenstein before reading it to get the full effect of the story. The movie isn't accurate enough to be okay to watch before reading this book either. You need to get the FULL EFFECT of the original story to appreciate Kiersten's epic transformation of this story into one with Elizabeth at the center and in her point of view.
In the original story Elizabeth is a plot device and a stereotypical 19th century girl; she's grateful for being brought into the Frankenstein family as a young orphaned girl, thought they take her in for her "supposed rich father from Lake Como" whose inheritance she will gain one day, plus they take her in to be a friend to Victor. The latter is more heavily emphasized in Kiersten's book than Mary Shelly's, but it is still part of the story. Elizabeth Lavenza and Victor Frankenstein are raised as cousins and grow close and have intentions of getting married. This is the case in both books, and in both books Victor's love for Elizabeth is mentioned, though in Mary Shelly's it is painted more loving and prettily, that you actually overlook a lot of Victor's more negative qualities. But with Kiersten's novel Victor's ugliness is at the forefront of the story, in fact it drives the whole plot, whereas it dropped from the plot theme in Shelly's once the monster became the villain of the story. What I ABSOLUTELY LOVED about Kiersten White's story is that because it is from Elizabeth's point of view Victor's cruelty and fucked up qualities are at the forefront of our minds while reading. Just as Elizabeth's trust and hopes for Victor are shattered, mine were too.
Not only does Kiersten throw the fact that Victor is a villain in our faces she makes Elizabeth a far more active player in the plot. Which further made me enjoy the story. Elizabeth wasn't sidelined in her own story this time. It was genius how Kiersten weaved in Elizabeth's actions within Shelly's plot line because it is truly plausible that Elizabeth could have done everything that she did in Kiersten's story in the original.
Elizabeth is not your average grateful, fainting, sweet 19th century girl. She has flaws and layers to her character. Even Justine who was a mere plot device for revenge in the original has depth to her character, even if she adheres to some of the qualities of girls of the 19th century, like sweetness and selflessness, it's not in a way that makes me roll my eyes because that is what makes Justine loved by Elizabeth. It is a part of her character.
I really loved Elizabeth and Justine's relationship. Elizabeth said it herself, Justine was the only person she unselfishly loved, and that was really important to me. These two girls who cared for each other and looked out for each other.
Girls supporting girls; always makes me happy.
Another addition to the story is Mary's character. I presume she is loosely based on Mary Shelly herself, hence the name Mary, but she was quite independent, bookworm-y, and smart. I loved her. I loved how in the second half of the book she rescued Elizabeth for the mental hospital (I WILL COME BACK TO THIS POINT BECAUSE WOW I WAS SHOOK) because she wanted answers, plus she was worried about not hearing anything from Elizabeth.
Okay from the beginning I was curious how closely Kiersten would follow the book, and she followed it almost perfectly, I quite preferred her ending to the real one.
As the plot unfolded I was like, okay everything's following suit, but ummm Elizabeth dies, so who's going to narrate.
WELL FRIENDS I LOVED HOW KIERSTEN CHOSE TO AVOID THIS PROBLEM.
It's fucking genius.
It just reaffirmed the fact that this is the woman who created Lada FUCKING Dracul.
What's a problem that women faced in this time? Oppression by men and desires for happiness, freedom, love, and sex that go largely unanswered. Yes. And where do women who express said feelings end up? MENTAL HOSPITALS.
GENIUS.
Faking Elizabeth's death and placing her in a mental hospital to "keep her safe until Victor was ready for her," FUCKING GENIUS. I LOVED AND HATED IT. Loved because it was a way to forward the story with Elizabeth in it, PLUS IT WAS VERY PLAUSIBLE. Hated because it was frustrating as a woman and a person rooting for Elizabeth to see her beaten down in such a way.
But it gets better.
Elizabeth is rescued by a woman, someone who she would consider a friend if she told her the truth, which happens, and then they in turn become each other's family. It was such a cathartic moment to hear Elizabeth tell someone the whole truth (and hear it too) and have them believe her! I teared up. It was such an empowering moment to have Mary help her escape and support her after Elizabeth is sorry for her part in hiding Victor's crimes and Mary tells her, "I am furious. And you should not be sorry, either. He has taken too much from the both of us."
Elizabeth further expresses her guilt after the girls attempt to kill Victor and he gets away, the monster saves Elizabeth's life from the lightning.
"I am not blameless."
"Not being blameless is not the same as being guilty." Mary smiled at me.
Elizabeth did what she had to to survive, and she had very little options, dealing with someone as violate as Victor. Elizabeth mentioned multiple times she was worried she couldn't/didn't love, but that is not the case. She's good at lying and hiding her emotions, but she still loves people, like Justine and Henry, even Victor (for a bit at least). Elizabeth had a part in this, but she isn't guilty. Mary further tells her, "You did not make him do all that he did." This scene was such an important part of the story. It was I scene that was crucial to Elizabeth's healing process, and I'm so glad that it exists.
I love when Mary finds Victor's journals, and she finds that he wrote that the monster killed Elizabeth (this is what happened in the book), and Elizabeth's SO OFFENDED, "that insufferable ass!" It is hilariously ironic, and it rights a wrong that I hated about the original story.
Kiersten White further exceeded my expectations by having Elizabeth and Mary team up with the monster. I have no qualms about this whatsoever because Victor was responsible for the other deaths. WHICH IS ALSO GENIUS AND MAKES PERFECT SENSE.
But the fact that the girls overlook Adam's deformities and treat him as a human being, which they both agree that he is, further rights another wrong from the original story. Adam is intelligent and expresses human emotion, much like he does in the original story, but Victor writes this off because he is still too strong that he considered the monster a threat to humanity. But, he couldn't look past his ugliness to the true intelligence and emotions of the monster that Adam reveals to Elizabeth and Mary. Not only that, but they create their own little family together.
(Also Adam has Henry's eyes is very sad, but Elizabeth and Mary find parts of the people they love in Adam's actions and words, which is sweet with creepy and sad undertones.)
It is the sweetest thing Kiersten White has ever written and it made me immensely happy.
AND Elizabeth is the one that tricked Victor into dying (alongside herself, or as she thought) was poetic. I loved that it was just them, one last time. Elizabeth defeated her demons, and she was willing to die for it because she was still feeling guilty about everything that had happened to Henry, Justine, and the Frankensteins, but Adam and Mary save her using Victor's technique. AMAZING.
This book was beautiful. Read it. Read Frakenstein first so you get the full effect, but read it.
Kiersten White you did a FABULOUS job. This exceeded all my expectations. You prove time and time again how much of a genius you are. Please know that my work study boss asked me about this book because she saw me reading it, and thought that what you did with the idea of the novel and the choice to put Elizabeth in a mental hospital were awesome! It was great to have someone feel an inkling of my own emotions about the book.
I know I appreciated this book more because I read Frankenstein, and I think that you should have to read Frankenstein before reading it to get the full effect of the story. The movie isn't accurate enough to be okay to watch before reading this book either. You need to get the FULL EFFECT of the original story to appreciate Kiersten's epic transformation of this story into one with Elizabeth at the center and in her point of view.
In the original story Elizabeth is a plot device and a stereotypical 19th century girl; she's grateful for being brought into the Frankenstein family as a young orphaned girl, thought they take her in for her "supposed rich father from Lake Como" whose inheritance she will gain one day, plus they take her in to be a friend to Victor. The latter is more heavily emphasized in Kiersten's book than Mary Shelly's, but it is still part of the story. Elizabeth Lavenza and Victor Frankenstein are raised as cousins and grow close and have intentions of getting married. This is the case in both books, and in both books Victor's love for Elizabeth is mentioned, though in Mary Shelly's it is painted more loving and prettily, that you actually overlook a lot of Victor's more negative qualities. But with Kiersten's novel Victor's ugliness is at the forefront of the story, in fact it drives the whole plot, whereas it dropped from the plot theme in Shelly's once the monster became the villain of the story. What I ABSOLUTELY LOVED about Kiersten White's story is that because it is from Elizabeth's point of view Victor's cruelty and fucked up qualities are at the forefront of our minds while reading. Just as Elizabeth's trust and hopes for Victor are shattered, mine were too.
Not only does Kiersten throw the fact that Victor is a villain in our faces she makes Elizabeth a far more active player in the plot. Which further made me enjoy the story. Elizabeth wasn't sidelined in her own story this time. It was genius how Kiersten weaved in Elizabeth's actions within Shelly's plot line because it is truly plausible that Elizabeth could have done everything that she did in Kiersten's story in the original.
Elizabeth is not your average grateful, fainting, sweet 19th century girl. She has flaws and layers to her character. Even Justine who was a mere plot device for revenge in the original has depth to her character, even if she adheres to some of the qualities of girls of the 19th century, like sweetness and selflessness, it's not in a way that makes me roll my eyes because that is what makes Justine loved by Elizabeth. It is a part of her character.
I really loved Elizabeth and Justine's relationship. Elizabeth said it herself, Justine was the only person she unselfishly loved, and that was really important to me. These two girls who cared for each other and looked out for each other.
Girls supporting girls; always makes me happy.
Another addition to the story is Mary's character. I presume she is loosely based on Mary Shelly herself, hence the name Mary, but she was quite independent, bookworm-y, and smart. I loved her. I loved how in the second half of the book she rescued Elizabeth for the mental hospital (I WILL COME BACK TO THIS POINT BECAUSE WOW I WAS SHOOK) because she wanted answers, plus she was worried about not hearing anything from Elizabeth.
Okay from the beginning I was curious how closely Kiersten would follow the book, and she followed it almost perfectly, I quite preferred her ending to the real one.
As the plot unfolded I was like, okay everything's following suit, but ummm Elizabeth dies, so who's going to narrate.
WELL FRIENDS I LOVED HOW KIERSTEN CHOSE TO AVOID THIS PROBLEM.
It's fucking genius.
It just reaffirmed the fact that this is the woman who created Lada FUCKING Dracul.
What's a problem that women faced in this time? Oppression by men and desires for happiness, freedom, love, and sex that go largely unanswered. Yes. And where do women who express said feelings end up? MENTAL HOSPITALS.
GENIUS.
Faking Elizabeth's death and placing her in a mental hospital to "keep her safe until Victor was ready for her," FUCKING GENIUS. I LOVED AND HATED IT. Loved because it was a way to forward the story with Elizabeth in it, PLUS IT WAS VERY PLAUSIBLE. Hated because it was frustrating as a woman and a person rooting for Elizabeth to see her beaten down in such a way.
But it gets better.
Elizabeth is rescued by a woman, someone who she would consider a friend if she told her the truth, which happens, and then they in turn become each other's family. It was such a cathartic moment to hear Elizabeth tell someone the whole truth (and hear it too) and have them believe her! I teared up. It was such an empowering moment to have Mary help her escape and support her after Elizabeth is sorry for her part in hiding Victor's crimes and Mary tells her, "I am furious. And you should not be sorry, either. He has taken too much from the both of us."
Elizabeth further expresses her guilt after the girls attempt to kill Victor and he gets away, the monster saves Elizabeth's life from the lightning.
"I am not blameless."
"Not being blameless is not the same as being guilty." Mary smiled at me.
Elizabeth did what she had to to survive, and she had very little options, dealing with someone as violate as Victor. Elizabeth mentioned multiple times she was worried she couldn't/didn't love, but that is not the case. She's good at lying and hiding her emotions, but she still loves people, like Justine and Henry, even Victor (for a bit at least). Elizabeth had a part in this, but she isn't guilty. Mary further tells her, "You did not make him do all that he did." This scene was such an important part of the story. It was I scene that was crucial to Elizabeth's healing process, and I'm so glad that it exists.
I love when Mary finds Victor's journals, and she finds that he wrote that the monster killed Elizabeth (this is what happened in the book), and Elizabeth's SO OFFENDED, "that insufferable ass!" It is hilariously ironic, and it rights a wrong that I hated about the original story.
Kiersten White further exceeded my expectations by having Elizabeth and Mary team up with the monster. I have no qualms about this whatsoever because Victor was responsible for the other deaths. WHICH IS ALSO GENIUS AND MAKES PERFECT SENSE.
But the fact that the girls overlook Adam's deformities and treat him as a human being, which they both agree that he is, further rights another wrong from the original story. Adam is intelligent and expresses human emotion, much like he does in the original story, but Victor writes this off because he is still too strong that he considered the monster a threat to humanity. But, he couldn't look past his ugliness to the true intelligence and emotions of the monster that Adam reveals to Elizabeth and Mary. Not only that, but they create their own little family together.
(Also Adam has Henry's eyes is very sad, but Elizabeth and Mary find parts of the people they love in Adam's actions and words, which is sweet with creepy and sad undertones.)
It is the sweetest thing Kiersten White has ever written and it made me immensely happy.
AND Elizabeth is the one that tricked Victor into dying (alongside herself, or as she thought) was poetic. I loved that it was just them, one last time. Elizabeth defeated her demons, and she was willing to die for it because she was still feeling guilty about everything that had happened to Henry, Justine, and the Frankensteins, but Adam and Mary save her using Victor's technique. AMAZING.
This book was beautiful. Read it. Read Frakenstein first so you get the full effect, but read it.
Kiersten White you did a FABULOUS job. This exceeded all my expectations. You prove time and time again how much of a genius you are. Please know that my work study boss asked me about this book because she saw me reading it, and thought that what you did with the idea of the novel and the choice to put Elizabeth in a mental hospital were awesome! It was great to have someone feel an inkling of my own emotions about the book.