The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein-- A Quick, Creepy, Friendshippy Read

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

Elizabeth was taken in as a child by the Frankenstein family to be a companion to their troubled son Victor.  She knows she has to do everything she can to make herself indispensable or risk being sent back to abuse and neglect.

When Victor leaves for school in Ingolstadt, she fears that her place in the household is threatened.  She's willing to do whatever it takes to make sure her future is secure, so she sets off to bring Victor back and be the person that he wants her to be.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book-- would it be a legit retelling??  Would it be something loosely inspired by Frankenstein?  What it ended up being was a very close retelling with a few twists, which I really really enjoyed.

I read the original Frankenstein for a class in college and while I don't think it is NEEDED to enjoy this book, I think it helps.  This book goes along with the original pretty closely, it just tells the story from a different perspective, so knowing the original story made the twists that much more shocking and effective.  I don't think it's a bad idea to at least Google a plot outline of the original book to get a feel for what story this one is following.

Elizabeth travels with her friend (and the Frankenstein's governess), Justine, to Ingolstadt to find Victor and figure out why he's been out of touch with her.  She knows that her place in the Frankenstein household is to be Victor's companion and with him gone, she feels that place is threatened.  She's not sure how long it will be before his father deems her presence unneeded.  When she gets there, she realizes that Victor left unchecked is not a good thing.  She thinks she needs to save him from himself and bring him home where she can stabilize him-- she doesn't realize that things have gone too far for that.

I enjoyed reading about Elizabeth and her dilemma of trying to be someone that she's really not in order to secure her future.  What I loved most about her was her ability to use what she has to get what she wants.  She was cunning, manipulative, and tenacious.  It was interesting to see her wrestle with being a woman in the 1700's and figuring out how to use that to her advantage.  It was also sad to see some of how women were treated back then and the fact that she was led to this really dark place because she was a woman and didn't have options beyond finding a husband.

Beyond Elizabeth, the characters in this book were really well developed.  Justine was my favorite and a bright point in this book.  I also loved Henry and Mary-- they added to the theme of friendship that ran throughout this book.  Especially because of the short length of this novel, I wasn't expecting to get to know these people so well, but I was pleasantly surprised by how attached I got to them.

I liked that this wasn't a romance-- I don't even know if Elizabeth is capable of those feelings.  I loved the darkness and the way this book SPIRALED about 3/4ths of the way into it.  I love when a book gets thrown on it's head and becomes something different than you thought.  In a retelling, that is especially cool.

OVERALL: Such a quick read!  I loved that this wasn't just "inspired by", this was a true retelling from the POV of Elizabeth, Victor's future wife.  I thought the writing created the perfect atmosphere of creepy and compelling.  The only drawback I had was that it felt very short.


Date Published: 9/25/2018
How I got this book: Thanks to Penguin Random House and ALA for providing me with an advanced copy to read and honestly review
Publisher: Delacorte Press


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My Rating: 4/5

Character: Elizabeth Lavenza
Book: Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

• If Elizabeth was allowed to follow her own dreams, I think she would've been an awesome student of the Earth Sciences.  I'm recommending this book to her because the m/c in it has a love for education and nature.