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kelleemoye 's review for:
This Dark Endeavor
by Kenneth Oppel
Reviewed at:
http://www.teachmentortexts.com/2012/05/this-dark-endeavor.html
I read the book Frankenstein during my lit degree and found that it is one of the classics I truly enjoyed. If you've read it, you know that the star of the book is not the monster, but Victor Frankenstein. Mary Shelley gives us quite a bit of back story about Victor showing his interest in the sciences as well as the loss that ultimately pushes him to try to recreate life; however, Kenneth Oppel has taken Shelley's story and added more depth to it while still paying homage and being true to the styling and story that Shelley wrote.
From the beginning I was engrossed in Oppel's story of a teenage Victor Frankenstein as well as his twin brother Konrad, their cousin Elizabeth and friend Henry. I really enjoyed that Oppel stuck primarily with characters found in the original novel, but threw in a twin brother to add some conflict within the story. The story arc was perfectly paced and it held my attention the whole time. The main characters were well developed and you instantly liked the four-some.
I will definitely need to look back through this book, though, because Kenneth Oppel not only tells a great adventure story, he writes beautifully as well and I, unfortunately, did not jot down all of the snatches of text that I enjoyed while reading.
This book will be an asset to any classroom that is teaching Frankenstein as it is a great companion to the classic which may reel in more readers than reading the classic alone.
"When she'd first arrived, she was like a feral cat. She hid. Konrad and I, seven years old, were forever trying to find her. To us it was a wonderful game of hide-and-seek. But it was no amusement to her; she just wanted to be left alone. If we found her, she became very angry. She hissed and snarled and hit. Sometimes she bit." p. 10
"I felt oddly incomplete, moving about the chateau without my twin. Not that we were always side by side, but I felt his absences more intensely now. Once, when we were six, and Mother was unwell during her pregnancy with Ernest, Father made us each stay with different relations for a fortnight.
It was one of the most miserable times of my life.
But this was worse. Why wasn't Konrad getting better?" p. 45
http://www.teachmentortexts.com/2012/05/this-dark-endeavor.html
I read the book Frankenstein during my lit degree and found that it is one of the classics I truly enjoyed. If you've read it, you know that the star of the book is not the monster, but Victor Frankenstein. Mary Shelley gives us quite a bit of back story about Victor showing his interest in the sciences as well as the loss that ultimately pushes him to try to recreate life; however, Kenneth Oppel has taken Shelley's story and added more depth to it while still paying homage and being true to the styling and story that Shelley wrote.
From the beginning I was engrossed in Oppel's story of a teenage Victor Frankenstein as well as his twin brother Konrad, their cousin Elizabeth and friend Henry. I really enjoyed that Oppel stuck primarily with characters found in the original novel, but threw in a twin brother to add some conflict within the story. The story arc was perfectly paced and it held my attention the whole time. The main characters were well developed and you instantly liked the four-some.
I will definitely need to look back through this book, though, because Kenneth Oppel not only tells a great adventure story, he writes beautifully as well and I, unfortunately, did not jot down all of the snatches of text that I enjoyed while reading.
This book will be an asset to any classroom that is teaching Frankenstein as it is a great companion to the classic which may reel in more readers than reading the classic alone.
"When she'd first arrived, she was like a feral cat. She hid. Konrad and I, seven years old, were forever trying to find her. To us it was a wonderful game of hide-and-seek. But it was no amusement to her; she just wanted to be left alone. If we found her, she became very angry. She hissed and snarled and hit. Sometimes she bit." p. 10
"I felt oddly incomplete, moving about the chateau without my twin. Not that we were always side by side, but I felt his absences more intensely now. Once, when we were six, and Mother was unwell during her pregnancy with Ernest, Father made us each stay with different relations for a fortnight.
It was one of the most miserable times of my life.
But this was worse. Why wasn't Konrad getting better?" p. 45