Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters

February 18, 2013
In 1815, upon receiving news of the death of their distant father, Victor Frankenstein, 17-year-old twins Giselle and Ingrid travel to Castle Frankenstein in Scotland's Orkney islands to live with their uncle and receive their inheritance. Though the castle is a "fearful place," surrounded by damp weather and superstition, Giselle plans a grand party while Ingrid buries herself in her father's notebooks and begins a romance with their neighbor, retired Lieutenant Walter Hammersmith, who suffers from "a disease of the nervous system." Strange events soon occur: Giselle starts sleepwalking and sees a "bad man" threatening to take them away, and someone has been committing murders in the vicinity. Ingrid begins to resemble her father in an obsessive quest to restore health to one she loves. Weyn (Invisible World: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials) has created an atmospheric and dramatic mystery, which incorporates many historical details and thematic elements from Shelley's gothic tale. The girls' alternating journal entries will keep readers equally invested in both of their stories in this psychological thriller with a dash of romance. Ages 12âup. Agent: Nancy Gallt Literary Agency.

December 15, 2012
Abandoned at birth, twin teen sisters Giselle and Ingrid discover that they've inherited a castle in the Orkneys from their father, Victor. For giddy Giselle, it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to throw a huge party, with the likes of Lord Byron and the Shelleys on the guest list. For the more studious Ingrid, her father's old journals--and the dusty science lab hidden underground--provide not only exciting insights into her father's work, but also the tools with which to outfit Walter, the moody and disabled ex-soldier to whom she's given her heart, with a new arm and leg. Weyn plays this unlikely scenario as gothic romance. She folds in stilted dialogue ("But we are entirely different in personality and presentation"), chapters written as alternating journal entries, and a supporting cast of historical figures and likely young men with varied agendas. There is also a sudden spate of local murders and occasional grisly details, such as a decayed but strangely familiar woman's head that washes ashore. In the climactic flurry of revelations, it turns out that one sister is a decidedly unreliable narrator. This thriller is saddled with such a wildly contorted plot that readers may be more inclined to snort than sigh. (afterword) (Gothic romance. 11-14)

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May 1, 2013

Gr 7 Up-An alchemy of romance and suspense, science and history, this book would make Mary Shelley proud. Written in diary form, the novel consists of entries belonging to Victor Frankenstein's identical twin daughters (liberties are taken with the original story). Upon learning that their father is dead, the girls also discover that they have inherited his fortune, and on the eve of their 17th birthday, arrive at a remote Scottish island to claim Castle Frankenstein. Deftly characterized, glamorous and vibrant Giselle is determined to turn the moldering mansion into a showplace, overseeing renovations and planning a grand party, while thoughtful and studious Ingrid becomes consumed by Victor's diaries describing his experiments and resolves to heal a handsome neighbor who is dying of an incurable disease. When acquaintances are found dead, the sisters wonder if some macabre family curse plagues them. Weyn carefully doles out answers to tantalizing questions. What lies at the root of Giselle's dramatic sleepwalking episodes? Is Ingrid's prideful obsession with science leading her into insanity as it did Victor? Why are people being murdered and who is the culprit? The book reaches a dramatic conclusion at the much-anticipated house party. Real 19th-century luminaries are guests, and when readers get to the final showdown scene in the underground laboratory, Mary Shelley will not be the only one left mouth agape.-Jennifer Prince, Buncombe County Public Libraries, NC

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2013
Grades 8-11 For those waiting for the next installment in Kenneth Oppel's The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein series, this short shocker is just the ticket. Weyn posits that the good doctor had a secret first marriage that resulted in twin daughters, Giselle and Ingrid, who now, at the age of 16, have inherited good old Castle Frankenstein. While Giselle renovates the castle for the sisters' big coming out parties, Ingrid finds a secret door (natch) and hidden laboratory (natch) and is taken with the same fever for knowledge that so consumed her pop. Ingrid's plan is to use Dr. F's journals to guide her in saving a handsome neighbor from a degenerating disease. Good planuntil people start dying. Weyn gives primacy to swooning while rushing through important scenes (Ingrid's grave robbing, two attacks upon Giselle), and Ingrid's skill with surgery is never quite believable. But the pace is bracing, the mystery solid, and the epistolary format lends a proper mood of nineteenth-century decorum. Cameos by Mary and Percy Shelley top off this tasty little appetizer for Franken-fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)