Five Reasons You Need to Read The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

1. It’s a strong, unique retelling of a classic. Frankenstein was one of the first classic novels I ever read, it’s the hundredth anniversary of publication, and I recently reread it for school, so I was primed to read a good retelling of it this fall. And seriously, it did not disappoint. Rather than focusing on Victor or his creation, it’s about Elizabeth, Victor’s adopted cousin/wife-to-be (it’s complicated). When Victor doesn’t come home from his studies at college, Elizabeth follows him to Ingolstadt, determined to hunt him down and bring him home, only to be drawn into a dark world of life and death, survival and resurrection. This point-of-view shift allows for a completely different look at the world and story of Frankenstein, with different stakes and themes. It’s no longer about science and consequences, but also about escaping abusive relationships and the act shaping yourself into something else in order to survive.

Kiersten White was also good at knowing what parts of the original source should be dropped to streamline the story and which needed to be expanded on. Some questions are answered (like where exactly Victor got those body parts to experiment on) and new light is shed on on unexplored parts of the world. There’s also enough divergence from the original plot and unique spin on events that already knowing the plot didn’t decrease my enjoyment and actually added to it. (For those wondering, I would really recommend reading Frankenstein before reading this. While you could probably read, understand, and enjoy Dark Descent without having read the source material, Frankenstein has been distorted by pop culture and there’s a lot of clever references to the original story that would make reading it worthwhile because you’ll get more out of it.)

 

 

2. It’s feminist. A huge part of the novel’s appeal to me was that it was a retelling centering on a woman (aka my JAM) and it delivered. While Frankenstein was written by a woman, it is very much a story about men, featuring only side female characters. Dark Descent, however, centers Elizabeth and makes her relationships with other women an important part of the novel. Retelling a story about the very nature of humanity from a female point of view instead of the traditional male one means that everything is seen in a whole new light and it’s just so good.

 

 

3. Elizabeth is such a good main character. The way Elizabeth is written is this book is really interesting (and the author’s note on inspiration is absolutely worth reading). Taken in by the Frankensteins at a young age (after living with an abusive foster family), she becomes a companion to obsessive, strange Victor Frankenstein, relying on her ability to understand and calm and please him in order to have a place in the family. Her story is very much one about molding herself to be a supporting character in Victor’s life, but in this story she’s the central character with agency and development and her development is learning not to stand aside in her own life. I rooted for her the whole time, even when her actions were questionable, because it was impossible not to hope she’d escape the Frankensteins and make her own place in the world. I really found myself deep inside her head and riveted by her journey throughout the book.

 

 

4. The writing is strong. Kiersten White really strikes a good balance with this book. It’s not modern enough to sound jarring, but it’s not old-fashioned enough as to be confusing. I think it’s a great example of how to write a retelling in the original setting. It captures the gothic, psychological tone of Frankenstein while still being more straightforward and fairly fast-paced.

 

 

5. It’s a perfectly dark, messed-up read. Dark Descent is really a great fall/winter read with it’s gothic atmosphere and morally questionable (or just plain wrong) characters. If you’re looking for a read to bring back some of the Halloween spook, this couldn’t be a better place. It really delves into dark parts of Frankenstein–an innocent woman sentenced to death, a boy stitching together body parts in an attempt to play God–but also isn’t hopelessly bleak. I really do think you have to be in a perfect mood to read this, though, because it is a little slow-paced at the beginning. Once I got in the right mood, I was hooked.

 

OVERALL

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein is a strong retelling that puts a unique spin on a old story than any fan of Frankenstein, feminism, or dark, gothic stories.

 

Diversity notes: Though the book does strongly focus on female characters and features an examination of abus and the aftermath, all characters seem to be straight & white, which seemed like a missed opportunity to me.

Author/own voices notes: N/A

Not Now, Not Ever: Dear Lily Anderson, Please Never Stop With the Nerdy Retelling Rom-Coms

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

The sequel to The Only Thing Worse than Me Is You, inspired by The Importance of Being Earnest.

Elliot Gabaroche is very clear on what she isn’t going to do this summer.

1. She isn’t going to stay home in Sacramento, where she’d have to sit through her stepmother’s sixth community theater production of The Importance of Being Earnest.
2. She isn’t going to mock trial camp at UCLA.
3. And she certainly isn’t going to the Air Force summer program on her mother’s base in Colorado Springs. As cool as it would be to live-action-role-play Ender’s Game, Ellie’s seen three generations of her family go through USAF boot camp up close, and she knows that it’s much less Luke/Yoda/”feel the force,” and much more one hundred push-ups on three days of no sleep. And that just isn’t appealing, no matter how many Xenomorphs from Alien she’d be able to defeat afterwards.

What she is going to do is pack up her attitude, her favorite Octavia Butler novels, and her Jordans, and go to summer camp. Specifically, a cutthroat academic-decathlon-like competition for a full scholarship to Rayevich College, the only college with a Science Fiction Literature program. And she’s going to start over as Ever Lawrence, on her own terms, without the shadow of all her family’s expectations. Because why do what’s expected of you when you can fight other genius nerds to the death for a shot at the dream you’re sure your family will consider a complete waste of time?

This summer’s going to be great.

WHAT DID I THINK?

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Well, this book just cemented Lily Anderson as a new favorite author!

Not Now, Not Ever is a fun, nerdy retelling of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest about a girl who runs away to geek camp to escape family expectations. To be clear: it’s a very loose retelling, since I enjoyed despite the only production of Earnest I ever saw ending abruptly in the middle due to a downpour. It deals with a few similar topics like secrets and fake identities, but is very much a story that stands on its own.

Elliot/Ever is just a terrific main character. She’s a smart black girl whose heroines are writers like N.K. Jemisin and Octavia Butler. Torn between family expectations–her mother’s family wants her to join the military, her father’s wants her to go to college and major in something useful, but science fiction is her real passion–she sneaks away to to a genius camp in an attempt to win a scholarship. As a character, she grew on me very easily–her narration is hilarious and I think every kid with divorced parents can relate to her situation at least a little. She’s got insecurities to overcome, but is also just an incredibly amusing narrator.

Being an Anderson book, there’s some great banter and a lot of fun references. A lightsaber battle! Marvel comics! Classic science fiction novels! The romance, while a bit quick, was also on point. (He has a typewriter!) It really was a joy to read.

Oh, and there’s cameos of characters from The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You, which made me squeal. Three years have passed since the events of the first book and I loved getting to catch up with the characters.

The genius camp setting was also perfectly written. While Camp Onward is more intense than anything I’ve ever attended, it really made me nostalgic for some of the places I’ve been. The competitive atmosphere and slight mystery kept the plot ticking along and the stakes plenty high.

However, I did find that the ending felt a little rushed. The great conspiracy was revealed kind of fast, a couple things made me go “wait, what?,” and there was a moment of self-revelation that felt not super lead-up-to. (The last scene is pitch-perfect, though.) There were also a lot of side characters that I occasionally had trouble keeping track of.

Basically, I hope Lily Anderson’s days of nerdy, romantic retellings of classics aren’t over if she keeps delivering this high calibre!

THE FINAL VERDICT

Not Now, Not Ever is a delightfully romantic and nerdy retelling of The Importance of Being Earnest that any fan of YA contemporary should pick up!

Diversity notes: Elliot is African American, as is the rest of her family. Several side characters are also people of color and two male characters are a couple.

Author/own voices notes: Lily Anderson is an Afro-Latina woman.

Nothing Happened by Molly Booth: A Fun Summer Update of a Classic

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

This modern-day retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing takes place at the idyllic Camp Dogberry, where sisters Bee and Hana Leonato have grown up. Their parents own the place, and every summer they look forward to leading little campers in crafts, swimming in the lake, playing games of capture the flag and sproutball, and of course, the legendary counselor parties.

This year, the camp drama isn’t just on the improv stage. Bee and longtime counselor Ben have a will-they-or-won’t-they romance that’s complicated by events that happened—or didn’t happen—last summer. Meanwhile, Hana is falling hard for the kind but insecure Claudia, putting them both in the crosshairs of resident troublemaker John, who spreads a vicious rumor that could tear them apart.

As the counselors juggle their camp responsibilities with simmering drama that comes to a head at the Fourth of July sparkler party, they’ll have to swallow their pride and find the courage to untangle the truth, whether it leads to heartbreak or happily ever after.

WHAT DID I THINK?

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Four stars out of five

Look, if there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I love Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing–after all, it’s the original enemies-to-lovers story with excellent banter. I’ve seen it as a live production in a park, a 90s movie, a series of modern-day vlogs in New Zealand, and read my fair share of YA retellings as well.

Another thing you should know about me: the summer camp I attended for four years of my life holds an incredibly special place in my heart and I really like reading stories set at summer camps. (The drama! The s’mores! The coming-of-age stories! What’s not to like?)

Basically, I couldn’t have been more excited when I heard about this book. Thankfully, I enjoyed it quite a lot!

Molly Booth’s Nothing Happened is one of those retellings that makes you immediately go “oh, of course this works!” The plot of Much Ado relies pretty heavily on some sudden romantic drama that can be difficult to translate into modern-day, but it makes perfect sense to reimagine Hero and Claudio’s story as a summer camp romance gone wrong. Where else can entire romantic relationships form, flourish, and fail in such a short period of time?

And oh, boy do they. There are two central romances in Nothing Happened and most of the plot hinges on them. Hana and Claudia (a reimagined version of Hero and Claudio) are two girls who have been flirting awkwardly via text for months ahead of meeting in real life as co-counselors. Bee and Ben (reimagined version of…oh, you know) are two childhood friends and fellow counselors who may or may not have had an badly-ending fling last summer and are gritting their teeth at the idea of another summer together. Getting me invested in the Hero/Claudio romance is always difficult because I know where it’s heading, but Hana and Claudia were genuinely cute enough that I found myself either forgetting the inevitable and dreading it when I remembered. And Bee and Ben just hit that trope of second-chance romance that I love.

The main thing about this book is that this book is built on drama. There’s gossip! There’s accusations! There’s eavesdropping! There’s a lot of miscommunication! There’s a mock trial! This kind of stuff can get on my nerves when it’s the foundation of the plot, but the gossipy, close-knit camp setting and the framework of the play made it fun since I knew how it would all turn out. It probably is more fun to read if you’re familiar with the original play, though.

Characters are really what can make or break a book for me, but this cast falls firmly into “make.” I love Bee–loyal and fierce and funny–and Ben, who was sweet and awkward. And the sibling relationships! Bee and Hana’s relationship is really at the forefront of this story (which I loved) and Ben is also a really cute older brother, though I wished Donald and John’s relationship had been explored more. Also, there was some nice diversity added into the story–Hana and Claudia are sapphic, Bee is adopted from Ethiopia, and several side characters are people of color.

There are a lot of points of view in this (Bee, Ben, Claudia, Hana, Donald, Vanessa, John…), which almost shouldn’t have worked…but somehow did? With such a large cast, it was fun to dip in and out of different characters, making even traditionally unsympathetic ones a little more human. It took a little getting used to in the beginning when I trying to keep everyone straight, but once I hit my stride I didn’t find myself confused. I do feel that it could have been used to flesh out some side characters more, though–especially the character of John and his relationship with his brother.

Despite my enjoyment of this book (me? staying up until two in the morning to finish this and then being nostalgic for my own summer camp? it’s more likely than you think!), there were some flaws. I don’t have any complaints about pacing or writing style–the character voices are distinct and I enjoyed the flashback format leading up to what really happened last summer with Bee and Ben–but the ending felt a pretty rushed considering how quickly the drama was wrapped up. I also confess to finding their counselor responsibilities a pretty unrealistic to the point of stretching my disbelief. (Look, I’ve been a counselor and a camper, so I can say with authority there’s no way they’d get away with all that sneaking around and shirking of responsibilities.)

But on the other hand, this did give me Beatrice with a mohawk, something I didn’t know I badly needed until I had it, so all flaws are forgiven.

 

VERDICT

A fun diverse retelling of a classic I’d recommend to anyone in the mood for some feel-good drama.

 

Diversity notes: Hana and Claudia are a sapphic couple. Hana is questioning whether bisexual or pansexual fits her best (doesn’t decide by the end but it sure she’s attracted to multiple genders) and also has depression. Claudia doesn’t label her sexuality, just says she is rarely attracted to guys. Bee is adopted from Ethiopia. Ben is Jewish. Donald and John are both Black Americans (and John’s last name is also Hernandez, so he may be Latino?) Two minor male counselors are a couple and another one is gay and Latino.

Author/own voices notes: Molly Booth is a bisexual woman.

Sword At Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliffe–Or, I Feel Emotional Over King Arthur

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

This brilliant reconception of the Arthurian epic cuts through the familiar myths and tells the story of the real King Arthur: Artos the Bear, the mighty warrior-king who saved the last lights of Western civilization when the barbarian darkness descended in the fifth century.

Artos here comes alive: bold and forceful in battle, warm and generous in friendship, tough in politics, shrewd in the strategy of war – and tender and tragically tormented in love.

Out of the braiding of ancient legend, fresh research, soaring imagination and hypnotic narrative skill comes a novel that has richly earned its reputation as a classic.

WHAT DID I THINK?

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Always the god, the king, the hero, who must die for the people when the call comes.

Breaking news: Local Book Reviewer Feels Many Emotions Over Arthurian Legend!

Lately, I’ve been trying to read more books about King Arthur as research for my own Arthurian story, so I picked this up when I saw it at the library because I had enjoyed Sutcliff’s Greek mythology retellings as a kid. It’s certainly a weighty book–my edition clocks it at almost 500 pages, with tiny print and yellowing pages to boot, yet I still found myself really liking it.

Sutcliff diverges from the traditional Arthurian legend by taking out any magic–no Merlin, no sword in a stone, no Holy Grail–and grounding the story as a historical tale of a British chieftain fighting off invading Saxons in post-Rome Britain. While there are still magical elements–such as older Celtic beliefs and “curses”–they’re never presented as anything more than part of the Roman vs. Celtic cultural conflict. Without the mythological aspects of the story, a lot of the novel becomes about Artos’s war campaign and the political struggles left behind after Rome. I’ll admit that this did drag at some points–there’s only so many battle plans against the Saxons you can read in one book–but post-Rome Britain is a time period I’m fascinated by, so I still managed to enjoy it. I also liked that by getting back the historical roots of Arthurian legend, traditional names (such as Bedwyr) were used and the story leaned away from more recent additions to the myths.

I think what this novel really excels at is establishing Artos as a very really, very human man despite his mythological status. He’s a man who loves his country despite feeling torn between his British and Roman heritage, who loves the men he fights alongside, who loves his dogs and horses, who loves his wife despite their troubles, who struggles with his status as a bastard son and the hailed savior of Britain. The novel opens with Artos on his deathbed recording his exploits in first-person, and I think this set-up really helped strip away some of the mythology and instead present a very human character beneath the grand reputation.

Sutcliff’s writing is also just gorgeous. She evokes the landscape and battles in a way that feels both effortless and epic. I was initially worried that I would find it hard to get into the writing style of an older book depicting a long-ago time period, but I found it very easy to immerse myself.

I should mention that while I did enjoy this overall, there were some things I didn’t love. First of all, I felt that the climactic battle ended a little too quickly. This is an epic book that was slowly building to the final battle for chapters, but the climax was really over in a matter of pages. In addition, the repetition of “something is wrong with Medraut but I can’t put my finger on it” got a little repetitive, to the point where I wished the novel would show us something concrete about him. (I also would have liked to see what Sutcliff could do with some of the other female characters from Arthurian legend, like Elaine or Nimue, since Guenhumara is the only major female character in the book.)

ALSO I WOULD JUST LIKE TO SAY THAT I HAVE A LOT OF EMOTIONS OVER ARTOS X GUENHUMARA X BEDWYR AND THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A THING

Diversity notes: Gault and Levin, two of Artos’s soldiers, are a gay couple. Gwalchmai, Artos’s healer, has a clubfoot and walks with a limp. Ben Simeon, another healer, is Jewish. Bedwyr eventually loses full mobility of one arm because of an injury. (Since the book is based on Arthurian legend and is a war novel that takes place over several decades, all of the aforementioned characters die.) There are some characters such as Guenhumara, who are described as “dark” or “tawny,” but I’m not sure if that necessarily means they’re people of color or not.

Author/ own voices notes: Rosemary Sutcliff contracted Still’s Disease (juvenile arthritis) as a child and was left with severe mobility issues as a result.