Although I did read Frankenstein ages ago (so long ago it was before I started this blog!) I had forgotten Victor’s fiancée was named Elizabeth. Thanks to Guillermo del Torro’s new adaptation for reminding me.
So I was intrigued when I was scrolling through my library app looking for a new audiobook and found this gem by Kiersten White.
I loved it!
The story is told from Elizabeth’s perspective and it goes back and forth between the current events, which line up with the events of Frankenstein, to Elizabeth’s childhood with Victor Frankenstein.
Spoiler alert: Victor is a psychopath whose siblings have a tendency to die very young. Before Elizabeth came to live with the family there was another Frankenstein son who died under mysterious circumstances. No one talks about it, but also, no one leaves Victor alone with the next Frankenstein baby. 2 + 2 = homicidal sociopath.
Elizabeth was brought to the Frankenstein household as a young orphan who has been abused and neglected by her caretaker. The Frankensteins take her in to be a playmate for their problematic older child, Victor, but also because her caretaker assures them Elizabeth is an heiress.
Elizabeth strongly doubts that, but she’s willing to go along with any fiction that will assure her a hearty meal and a warm bed.
She knows her life of comfort is contingent upon keeping Victor happy, so she works very hard at all times to keep him happy, all while keeping him away from his younger brother, William.
Elizabeth and Victor both operate under the assumption that they will marry when they are of age. That said, there is no formal engagement, so Elizabeth, knowing how precarious her situation is, isn’t taking anything for granted.
Imagine her surprise when, immediately after her hasty marriage to Victor, her father-in-law immediately reveals that all the work and travel he has been doing over the years hasn’t been in service of building his own business: it’s been to assure her inheritance so he can claim it as soon as she marries Victor.
Of course he wasn’t gullible enough to assume she was an heiress without verifying the situation for himself.
That whole situation is pretty sticky. If Elizabeth had known she was an heiress she never would have worked so hard to please Victor all the time, much less pushed for an early wedding.
So she feels like the Frankensteins have cheated her, but if she’s been playing along with the story that she’s an heiress, she can’t really accuse them of anything, can she?
Long story short, Elizabeth finds out about Victor’s monster and assumes it really is a monster and poor Victor is the victim in this story.
But of course that’s not the case. Much like del Torro’s adaptation, White’s version puts the blame for all the murders squarely on Victor’s shoulders, but without the benefit of the doubt of making it out to be an accident. Instead, Victor willfully and premeditatedly murders his little brother, his own friend, and Elizabeth’s best friend.
And when Elizabeth finds out the truth about what he’s been up to and tries to stop it, he does what any husband of the era with an inconvenient wife does: lock her up in an asylum.
Fortunately, Elizabeth had made sort-of friends with a woman about her own age named Mary, who comes to rescue her, and then to help her take down Victor. Gotta love a new, kickass character named after the author of the original novel.
I wouldn’t say this is the best book I’ve read lately, but it’s a lot of fun and I highly recommend it.