Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
Release Date: September 25, 2018
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: Library
Genre: Young Adult / Dark Fantasy
Elizabeth Lavenza hasn’t had a proper meal in weeks. Her thin arms are covered with bruises from her “caregiver,” and she is on the verge of being thrown into the streets…until she is brought to the home of Victor Frankenstein, an unsmiling, solitary boy who has everything—except a friend.
Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable—and it works. She is taken in by the Frankenstein family and rewarded with a warm bed, delicious food, and dresses of the finest silk. Soon she and Victor are inseparable.
But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth’s survival depends on managing Victor’s dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost…as the world she knows is consumed by darkness.
“Mary Shelley changed the whole world.”
2018 marks the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the story of a young scientist named Victor Frankenstein and his monstrous
creation and the havoc that ensues. The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, by author Kiersten White, is a re-imaging, told
from the female point of view of Elizabeth Frankenstein, nee Lavenza,
Victor Frankenstein’s adopted “sister."
Elizabeth
was an orphaned child, condemned to a miserable life then sold to the Frankenstein's as a
playmate for Victor, who became attached to her from the very first
meeting. This story is actually told in a sort of flashback to the past when Elizabeth was taken in by the Frankenstein's and the present where Elizabeth goes searching for Victor Frankenstein who went off on his own several years before and ends up deep in a conspiracy for the ages.
I loved the addition of Mary Delgado who Elizabeth meets in Ingolstradt along with Justine Moritz, her governess, which leads her to discover some pretty disturbing things about what Victor has been up to these past 2 years. While Justine is a character whom I very much felt sorry for, Mary actually has a backbone and doesn't scare easily. Justine is naive to a fault, but loves taking care of the Frankenstein's younger boys. She was saved by Elizabeth, and quickly became each others support mechanism.
Elizabeth and Victor's relationship is anything but normal. I agree with other reviewers that it is emotionally draining, and abusive, and if this story took place in this century, this book would be protested for the way that women are treated. Sometimes it's very hard for the person being abused to see, acknowledge, and realize that they are being abused. I have to say, however, that Elizabeth isn't a nice, warm, friendly, and stable character. You can't be when you do the things that she does over the course of this story. Would I dare say that this is a twisted love story? Hell yes!
Another character I had to feel a bit for was Henry Clerval. Henry wandered into a disturbing situation, and in the end, he is probably the biggest surprise of the entire story. If you think that the author has felt the need to make Victor a loving, caring, down home character which we never saw in the original story, you would be wrong. Victor is a very disturbing character whose mind is as dark and twisted as they come. Victor is prone to outbursts of anger, and Elizabeth is the only one that can keep him calm. I think White did a good job in uncovering who Victor really was as a young adult.
I saw this one yesterday. Not sure what to think of it. Glad you liked it.
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental