Monsters

August 1, 2020
A studious, if salacious, retelling of young Mary Shelley's life, pre-Frankenstein. Idolizing her deceased, feminist mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, and scorning her siblings and stepmother, Mary Godwin wants to be a respected writer. In 1814, 16-year-old Mary follows 20-something Romantic author Sir Percy Bysshe Shelley (already married and father of two) across Europe and into poverty with her 16-year-old stepsister Claire (nee Jane)--first a third wheel, then the third member of their dysfunctional polyamorous relationship--in tow. Pregnancies, deaths, and suicides real and threatened ensue as the trio live by their principles, inviting scandal but surprised by ostracism. Despite numerous narrators, ecstatic epistles, and excerpts from their published works, the characters are difficult to connect with and, often, unlikable. The trio's inconsistency undermines their oft-repeated fiery rhetoric and radical philosophies while their panoply of sexual behaviors--polyamory, free love, bisexuality--get introductions but little illumination. Scholars of the Shelleys already know the plot points but may be amused by the speculative reconstruction of Claire while other readers may be hampered by the leaden language, Gothic floridity, and late introduction of Frankenstein-specific material. Despite the initial ages of the Godwin teens, this is less a YA novel than a soporific if soap opera-worthy adult tale of self-absorbed, self-righteous artists. Monstrously long and far from electrifying. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 16-adult)

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