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Dec 04, 2018jaimegrover rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
When you read a book that is an awesome feminist reimagining of one of your favourite stories in the whole world and even though there are so many reasons for you to love it you just...don't.... Things I enjoyed: - Elizabeth is a very well-written character. She is complex, interesting, morally grey, and overall just well fleshed-out - Justine and Mary are also delightful, interesting, and complex characters. - The writing - So much feminism - Elizabeth's quiet appearance in familiar plot points from the original story - The commentary on toxic, possessive relationships What I Didn't Enjoy - The commentary on this toxic, possessive relationship (I'll explain) - Too many liberties taken with the original source material (normally I don't struggle with this and LOVE seeing different versions and adaptations of stories I know, but maybe this one is just so dear to me that I struggled with the changes) - Victor I know there are more pros than cons listed, but the cons turned me off a surprising amount. Obviously I don't mind that some liberties needed to be taken with the original story - there wouldn't be a story worth reading here otherwise. I thought it would mostly be a retelling from Elizabeth's perspective - and it is, in a way, but the relationship between her and Victor is almost absurdly different because of some huge changes made to Victor's character. I don't want to go into detail about it because of spoilers, but rather than exploring a bad relationship that is full of neglect (which there is significantly more evidence for in the original story), this version shows a relationship that is full of toxic possessiveness. It just didn't sit well with me. Not that I mind reading a commentary on the toxicity of relationships like this, but because it was so far from my understanding of the little we DO learn of their relationship in the original Frankenstein. It just threw me off. And because it is such a huge focus in this story, I found it all the less appealing. The ending is completely different as well. Not bad, but different. I wanted so badly to love it, and went into it having every reason to, but I just didn't. It is a good book, and I can totally see why so many people love it, I only think I would have enjoyed it more had it not been these characters, and this story in particular that it was based on.