Book Review: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

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I love FREE Kindle e-books! Otherwise, I probably would not have read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. After reading Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein series, I had thought about reading the original but too many other books “called my name.”

I have never seen any of the Frankenstein movies that have been released over the years. Bits and pieces, here and there, but never a whole movie. From my understanding the original Frankenstein is night and day different from all of those.

I absolutely loved this book. It has mystery, suspense, greed, love, hate, murder, guilt and every other feeling you could have thrown in for good measure.

Victor Frankenstein is obsessed with creating a human being from scratch. He studies hard, gathers what he needs at the most unusual places and finally realizes his dream. But – the monster he creates is a nightmare. Victor flees, leaving the creature to fend for himself.

Victor attempts to live a normal life but the memory of what he has done haunts him. Then he discovers that the creature has been following him. It is angry and it kills.

The reader learns that the monstrosity was able to gain speech and understanding but never love and that was what he wanted most of all. He seeks revenge on his creator and seeks to destroy everything and everyone Victor holds dear.

The two meet and the creature wants Victor to create a mate for him. At first, Victor reluctantly agrees but part-way through he cannot complete the terrible task. The monster vows vengeance and Victor follows him to kill him. Their travels take them all over Europe.

I won’t give away the ending but it’s a good one. This is a great classic that I’m glad I finally read.