Into The Fire by Jeaniene Frost

In the wrong hands, love can be a deadly weapon.

For nearly six hundred years, Vlad Tepesh cared for nothing, so he had nothing to lose. His brutal reputation ensured that all but the most foolhardy stayed away. Now falling in love with Leila has put him at the mercy of his passions. And one adversary has found a devastating way to use Vlad’s new bride against him.

A powerful spell links Leila to the necromancer Mircea. If he suffers or dies, so does she. Magic is forbidden to vampires, so Vlad and Leila enlist an unlikely guide as they search for a way to break the spell. But an ancient enemy lies in wait, capable of turning Vlad and Leila’s closest friends against them…and finally tearing the lovers apart forever.

The Night Prince book four very much felt like a finale, the story was all about wrapping things up and lying lose ends. For our power couple, it meant that the hunt for Mircea now has a extra desperate edge: he himself has been kidnapped by necromancers and is being used to test Vlad's love for Leila.

Ian, the lovable rogue, is roped into helping Vlad and Leila navigate the magical underworld, which included some experiments with glamours and magical disguises. Those were hilarious, and there was even a little Buffy reference sneaked in there, which made me very happy. 

On this "magical journey", we learnt some real details about the origin of Leila's powers, which was pretty damn cool. Leila and her sister go to the reservation they used to live on before their mother died and discover some familial traits that come from the Cherokee part of their bloodline. I would have loved more details but we got the information necessary to whoop some Mircea butt.

As much as I loved it, and all of Frost's books, I did have some minor issues with it - the drama wasn't all there, the sexiness was definitely absent - but it was still funny, clever, dramatic and full of great vampire and/or magical characters. And it actually felt like a happy ending, even though parts were rushed or brushed off. Vlad might not have completely learned his lesson about keeping secrets from his wife, and Leila is still getting over some serious PTSD, but the worst is finally over and they can be a normal couple - well, as much as they can be.

Published 28th February 2017 by Avon.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries about his client and his castle. Soon afterwards, a number of disturbing incidents unfold in England: an unmanned ship is wrecked at Whitby; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman’s neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the imminent arrival of his ‘Master’. In the ensuing battle of wits between the sinister Count Dracula and a determined group of adversaries, Bram Stoker created a masterpiece of the horror genre, probing deeply into questions of human identity and sanity, and illuminating dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire. 

My October classic is a re-read from university, and I'm glad I did because I'd forgotten a lot of the details, especially Dr Seward and his patient Renfield - the inspiration for Igor if I ever saw one. Mostly told with journal entries, a few newspaper articles and letters, Stoker paints a wide picture of traditional Gothic horror, from Jonathan's treacherous journey into rural Romania to Mina and Lucy's inexpiable troubles in England and their final encounter with the formidable Count Dracula. It was very interesting to read it after having had lectures on the subject - brought back memories of discussions on femininity, sexuality, Victorian history and religion, all of which Stoker brings into the story. 

Mina and Lucy are total opposites in terms of womanhood: Mina is a modern woman, wanting to better herself, wanting to be part of the team fighting the Count, she's soft and brave and clever. Lucy on the other hand is naive and gullible and oh so sweet, it's no wonder Dracula was able to manipulate her! She is also used as the epitome of "evil feminism" when she changes, as she physically and mentally becomes a monster. In the 1890's, there's only so much a good woman should be able to do!

The men were mostly all typical Victorian men: smart and brave and typically masculine in their strategies and professions. Van Helsing comes to rescue them with his vast knowledge of apparently everything, but it isn't until they see what has become of Lucy that they even consider the supernatural. The way it is built up until only the impossible exists is very typical of a Victorian sensation novel and Stoker definitely knew what horror story he was creating. 

I adore this story. I admit, I did struggle, the Victorian novel is very dense and takes a lot of concentration, but the short chapters, the gripping plot and the variety of characters makes this the incredible story that it is. 

Published May 12th 1986 by W.W. Norton & Company (first published May 26th 1897)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Living in the Blackwood family home with only her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian for company, Merricat just wants to preserve their delicate way of life. But ever since Constance was acquitted of murdering the rest of the family, the world isn't leaving the Blackwoods alone. And when Cousin Charles arrives, armed with overtures of friendship and a desperate need to get into the safe, Merricat must do everything in her power to protect the remaining family.

Told from Mary Katherine, or Merricat's, point of view, we see the after effects of living in a town that no longer likes your family, is scared of them and blames one young woman in particular for the deaths of the rest of the Blackwoods. Merricat had a very odd voice, almost like a child she states strange and random thoughts as fact, like running away to the moon. Although she tells us she is 18, I honestly spent most of the story forgetting and expecting her to be about 5!

Older sister Constance looks after the house and the family now, telling Merricat to do her chores and making sure Uncle Julian gets his medicine. It had an old-school Gothic feel to it, with its big empty house, hushed secrets and dead family. But it never felt like a horror story. It was much more subtle in its scariness, mostly in the way that Merricat saw the world and her twisted yet fierce protectiveness of her family home.

The arrival of cousin Charles upsets Merricat's balance and that's when things go pear-shaped and the Gothic horror really comes out. We never knew who to trust or who to listen to, especially with Merricat's juvenile fears guiding our view of their situation. All in all, a weird and wonderful story, from whom I now understand to be one of the greatest Gothic writers.

Published 1st October 2009 by Penguin Modern Classics. First published 1962.

Darkmere by Helen Maslin

A castle. A curse. A dangerous summer. Leo has invited Kate and a few friends to spend the summer at his inheritance, Darkmere Castle: as wild and remote as it is beautiful. Kate thinks it will be the perfect place for her and Leo to get together - but instead, she's drawn into the dark story of a young nineteenth-century bride who haunts the tunnels and towers of the house. And whose curse now hangs over them all.

This was proper, old fashioned Gothic, with its old castle, the sneaking around, the ghosts and shadows. Set in the dilapidated castle, it had a mix of Gothic and romance and plain teenage roughness. 

It told of two stories blended together, mixed past and present, between Kate and Ellie. Kate has been invited by Leo, along with the whole group  of friends, to spend the summer in his newly inherited castle. But ghosts still haunt the place with terrible secrets and the harsh past.

In the late 19th century, Ellie married a practical stranger, the man who was supposed to marry her sister before her horrific accident. But because of that twist of fate, nothing seems to go right for Ellie at Darkmere. She isn't respected by the staff, her new husband only wants her to produce an heir, and she is completely isolated from the rest of society. Hearing both stories side by side really added to the tension. Things started to make more sense for Kate as we heard from Ellie, especially in terms of the ghosts and the secret passageways. 

The two guys complimented each other as well. Both Leo and St Cloud were not all they seemed and much darker than they let on. The trouble they cause, just because they can, affected everyone around them and, especially in Leo's case, hurt their friends. It seemed the castle itself had a horrible effect on anyone that stayed there too long. 

All in all, this was an incredible story. The characters really made it for me, especially the parallels between Kate and Ellie; they were all so unique and had a great part in the story and had their own history that blended with Darkmere castle. Definitely an author to watch!

Published 6th August 2015 by Chicken House. Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.

But all that changes when the Lynburns return.

The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?

This was a modern take on classic Victorian Gothic; it had the small town with a big secret, a big family trying to stay in power, and even a bit of the unexplainable magic thrown in for the fun of it. It told of Kami, journalist/detective in training, her weird telepathic powers with new boy in town and his family's claim to fame: 'We neither drown nor burn'. Sounds nice, huh? 

Kami wanted to be a journalist and the whole book had this 'there's a secret and I must know' feel which led a powerful mystery narrative, which was really fun to read alongside what I take to be Brennan's typical display of witticisms. Kami is investigating the return of the power family, the Lynburns, starting with the teen cousins in her school. Now, the Lynburns were... let's just go with interesting. Nothing about them seemed to make sense and it was frustrating to be left in the dark. But I guess that was the point! As for Jared, he was highly entertaining, if annoying to all hell; he was stubborn and disagreeable, weirdly protective and considering we were basically in his head, he was very difficult to read. His and Kami's interactions were either adorable or extremely awkward; I can understand it being a bit weird to find your imaginary friend come to life but that doesn't mean you have to hold her at arm's length!

I'm not sure I liked how the mystery took a back-burner for the first half of the book, just to explore Kami and Jared's relationship; it made the clues piece together funny and the time seemed to drag, as well as their relationship not really progressing much. Jared was stubborn enough to make it have a 'two steps forward, one step back' feel. But they were quite sweet together when they weren't over-thinking it, and they made a good team in the hunt for clues. Speaking of team, Kami's best friend Angela was a nice saving grace from all the weird. She was very funny and lazy to the point of useless but she clearly cared for Kami and would follow her in her stupidly dangerous hunts, if only to make sure she came back. And Holly, new comer in their Scooby Gang, was clever and eager to help.

All in all, I really liked this but I had my moments of doubt; some plot points were rushed even though they were crucial, and some interactions (as I said) were awkward after they appeared to make a great step towards proper friendship. But not over-thinking the characters weirdness, the plot had a great twist-and-turn feel with all the little mysteries adding up to one big secret that endangered the entire town.  

Published 11th September 2011 by Random House.

The Devil In The Corner by Patricia Elliott

Penniless, and escaping the horrors of life as a governess to brutal households, Maud seeks refuge with the cousin-by-marriage she never knew. But Juliana quashes Maud's emerging friendships with the staff and locals - especially John, the artist commissioned to restore the sinister Doom in the local church. John, however, is smitten with Maud and makes every effort to woo her.

Maud, isolated and thwarted at every turn, continues to take the laudanum which was her only solace in London. Soon she becomes dependent on the drug - so is this the cause of her fresh anxieties? Or is someone - or something - plotting her demise?

Is the devil in the corner of the Doom a reality, or a figment of her imagination?

After two years and three houses of being a failed governess, Maud is feeling hopeless. Orphaned, with no family or support, she is on the verge of giving up when she hears from her uncle's step-daughter, Juliana Greenwood, offering her a home. Her only family left, Maud goes, hoping to find love as well as a stable home. But of course, this is a typical Victorian Gothic, which I love, so nothing is as it seems and none of it goes right. 

I felt so sorry for Maud but was never really sure if I could trust her. She had some serious issues; I strongly believe she sleepwalked, which was not helping the superstitious rumours, as well as being addicted to laudanum and having a horrible time at her previous houses, I'm not all that surprised that she was a bit weird. As for her cousin, oh did Juliana annoyed me. She was spoiled, petty, immature considering she was middle-aged and ill, not to mention careful with her praise, even when Maud truly deserves it. Although it was obvious that Maud really wanted to love her and for Juliana to reciprocate, I think even Maud had her limits and if not for her Victorian ideals, would have acted out.

Now for the love interest. Written with alternate perspectives, we got inside John's head and saw Maud through his eyes, completely smitten with her as he was, even as she confused him. Tasked with repairing the church's painting, John was not the typical brooding artist; he was considerate and sweet, pretty clueless with women but a good guy. 

The story itself was not as fast-paced or scary as I thought it would be. Not that I'm complaining; in the end, I really liked the pacing and the storyline, just different to what I expected. As Maud tries to understand what is happening in her new small town, starting with vicious rumours and ending with various deaths, she succumbs to the superstitious towns people and the will of Juliana. Elliott wrote a very good portrayal of Victorian mannerisms and traditions, all the little details adding up to one incredibly gripping story. 

Published 6th March 2014 by Hachette Children's Books. Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review. 

Gemini Rising by Eleanor Wood

How far would you go to fit in? Sorana Salem is ok with being not quite bottom of the pile at her exclusive private school. Until the mysterious Johansson twins arrive unexpectedly mid-term. Hypnotically beautiful and immensely cool, magnetic Elyse and mute Melanie aren’t like the school’s usual identikit mean girls. Soon Sorana’s sharing sleepovers and Saturday nights out with the twins. But their new world of Ouidja boards and older boys might not be as simple as it seems. And the dark secrets that they share could be about to take Sorana down a path that’s impossible to turn back from…


I had no expectations about this book other than the author's reassurances that it was pretty spooky. That it was, and even though it took a while to get to that point, it was intriguing and weird enough for me to be gripped from the start.

Sorana is in sixth form at her very small, private school and when two new girls join their year half way through the school term, things are shaken up. As soon as the twins arrive, you get the feeling that they are just... wrong. They don't quite fit in and mess with the social system, plus they are very creepy. Elyse is strong-voiced and has a wicked attitude while Melanie is practically silent and so under Elyse's thumb it's stupid. As the protagonist, Sorana was a big part of the story and told from her perspective, we can only understand things as she understand's them. This sometimes leaves the reader in a lurch, which was on purpose because Sorana was so infatuated with having the twins as friends that she did not want to believe a bad word against them. Having been where Sorana was with the peer pressure thing, I was both very sympathetic and incredibly annoyed with her. It wasn't her fault, she was pretty weak when it came to the twins but that was the point. 

Once the twins have their fingers wrapped around Sorana and her friends, the book became pretty addictive. I had to know what happened, what went wrong, how they could be so weak and blind to Elyse's crazy. This crazy stemmed from a fascination with the occult. Now, I'm pretty into that myself, you know astrology and witchcraft and all that - I have an open mind. But Elyse was too... stubborn, too evil really; she just wanted power and control over everything. And this bad attitude built up and up until it had to burst. The last few chapters had this ominous feel. Actually the whole book did, like it was leading towards something terrible and you could only guess at what it could possibly be. But with Elyse's attitude and fascination with the occult, I was guessing as wildly from killing someone to rising someone from the dead. Turns out it was as bad as my guesses. 

This was a fascinating read, with everything you could want from a rock 'n' roll novel, from normal teen insecurities to the wild power of the occult and things you couldn't possibly explain. It was gripping and strange and I could not put it down. As much as Sorana annoyed me, I loved how she really did try to do good; even as she didn't understand what was going on, she did not lose what made her special. And if you wanted to blame her for what happened, the situation is always different from the middle than outside looking in. 

Published 7th June 2013 by Carina. Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for my e-copy.

Blood Calling by Joshua Grover-David Patterson

Lucy Leary's eighteen year old life is a wreck. Her parents divorced, she's earned a DUI, and her grandfather has died. He left her a single possession: A vampire slaying kit with a note that says, "They're real. Fight them."

Lucy finds answers in a place she never expected--the homeless shelter where she has to perform her community service. The Sundown Shelter is only open at night, and the man who runs it disappears during the day. But digging into the truth is dangerous. What Lucy learns will force her to abandon her life and confront an ancient vampire out to get her family.

I picked this up because it was a cheap e-book and I like vampire stories. And it was surprisingly good! Proper vampires that burn in the sun, some murderous and some with remaining humanity, that weren't romanticised. However, the story does take a turn that the synopsis does not mention, so look out for that! 

So Lucy was the typical female protagonist of a vampire story: normal looks, little anti-social, broken home life. But she wasn't anything special. In fact, she was a little annoying, rambling on about nothing when there was nothing else to say. Very much like real life, yes, but not dramatic enough for a vampire tale. Plus, half the time I forgot her name, but that's just because of the first person narrative. Her counter-part, sort of, was Wash, the boss at her community service homeless shelter, who just happened to be a vampire. Wash was pretty epic; a secret vampire that ends the life of those about to die. He gives them a chance, a painless death that also helps him - having never seen this before, I thought this was nicely fresh take on humane vampires. And then there's Emma, the other vampire. Her story was fascinating and a little heartbreaking, and although I kept forgetting she was supposed to be about 16, I really liked her.

The narrative is worth a quick mention: it was written in past tense, as Lucy was, apparently, way older and looking back at the beginning of her story. It was good, reasonably well done but I kind of forgot about it half the time which meant when future-Lucy butted in, I was a little confused. 

All in all, it was a good, funny, fairly original vampire story with some good dramatic scenes that were too few and far between the bore of normal life and hiding out in hotels rooms. Worth a try for paranormal lovers and hopefully would pick up speed in the next book. 

Published 11th October 2012 by Red Iris Books. 

Velveteen by Daniel Marks

Publisher: Delacorte Books
Published: 9th October 2012
Pages: 464
Synopsis:
Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that’s not the problem. The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it’s not a fiery inferno, it’s certainly no heaven. It’s gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn’t leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what’s really on her mind. Bonesaw.

Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she’s figured out just how to do it. She’ll haunt him for the rest of his days.  It’ll be brutal... and awesome. But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen’s obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul. A risk she’s willing to take—except fate has just given her reason to stick around: an unreasonably hot and completely off-limits coworker. Velveteen can’t help herself when it comes to breaking rules... or getting revenge. And she just might be angry enough to take everyone down with her.

Review:
I have lusted after this for months. Seriously, dark heroine and ghosts and killers? It's like it was written for me! And while it didn't turn out to be what I expected, it was still pretty epic. Velveteen was murdered, the victim of a serial killer, and now haunts purgatory where she leads a team of other ghosts to look out for souls that are trapped on Earth. That's how she meets Nick, a soul trapped in a crystal ball, used by a body-snatcher to wreak havoc on the very structure of purgatory. Although not exactly interested in boys - who would be when your dead? - Nick grows on her, proving to be funny and smart and a quick-learner.

Marks' debut was dark and funny, with some proper creepy moments but still fantastic, all dark clothes and macabre attitudes. The synopsis turned out to be kind of misleading, as I expecting a story about a dead girl haunting her killer, instead got an - in my opinion - equally awesome story about purgatory and the hot new guy who proves to be vital in the revolution that could bring down the whole of purgatory. When Nick follows Velvet and her team back through the doors to purgatory, understandably he has questions. But with the shadow-quake, the idiot revolutionaries who think that purgatory is a scam and losing a member of her team to going on to his final resting place, Velvet has no time for Nick's questions, or his wandering hands. She has been tasked with finding out who is behind the revolution and how to stop it, all with the added burden of trying to stop her killer from claiming another victim.

Sounds pretty intense, right? It was, but in a very good way! Drawn right in to Velvet's dark mind, her bleak and sarcastic attitude and what she has to deal with in purgatory, her story is a fantastic one with loads of great one-liners, heart-felt moments, wicked characters and an amazing love interest. Seriously, Velvet and Nick's chemistry was just right, with the tension of working together and the unwanted attraction that kept bubbling up, plus he proved to be an incredible help in her obsession with Bonesaw and the concluding action of the revolution.

All in all, an epic read for the goth lovers, with plenty of gore and snarky characters, a really good story, as long as you don't mind being disappointed with the lack of hardcore revenge and expect more of a almost political look at life after death and stubborn ghouls wanting to live again.

Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice

Publisher: Sphere
Published: 2nd October 2008 (first published 1976)
Pages: 320
Synopsis:
Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force–a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. 

Review:
Louis is living in eighteenth century New Orleans when he gets the chance for eternal life. Lestat, the stubborn vampire that he is, only wanted Louis' house and lands, but apparently immortal life is a fair trade for that. However, Louis is twice the vampire Lestat ever was, learning and experiencing what it is to live forever and not just taking pleasure in the kill.

This was actually a re-read for university, which I'm glad for because the first time I read it, I obviously did not appreciate the language and the awesome that is Interview with the Vampire. Despite very heavy details that takes a while to grasp, it is an incredibly engaging story, from Louis' determination to not be like Lestat, lazy and self-absorbed, to the creepiness of Claudia's growing into a fully-fledge vampire mind in a ten year old's body.

Anyone at all interested in vampires or the Gothic will have already read this, but in case you haven't or you're not into that sort of thing, I still think this is one of those books that you have to read - whether it be for the vampires, the seduction, the blood or the drama.

Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite

Publisher: Penguin
Published: 10th September 1992
Pages: 384
Synopsis: 
At a club in Missing Mile, N.C., the children of the night gather, dressed in black, looking for acceptance. Among them are Ghost, who sees what others do not. Ann, longing for love, and Jason, whose real name is Nothing, newly awakened to an ancient, deathless truth about his father, and himself.

Others are coming to Missing Mile tonight. Three beautiful, hip vagabonds - Molochai, Twig, and the seductive Zillah (whose eyes are as green as limes) are on their own lost journey; slaking their ancient thirst for blood, looking for supple young flesh.

They find it in Nothing and Ann, leading them on a mad, illicit road trip south to New Orleans. Over miles of dark highway, Ghost pursues, his powers guiding him on a journey to reach his destiny, to save Ann from her new companions, to save Nothing from himself...

Review: 
Just a quick one today because I'm going to see The Hobbit soon. Ah, real life interruptions!

Lout Souls is another book for university, a modern Gothic module and one I actually looked forward to reading. Vampires and mad teenage Goths? Duh! And while I wasn't disappointed in this respect, I was unprepared for how weird this book really is. Initially a gripping read, it didn't lose its charm but any innocence I once had has vanished!

All the characters are either vampires or just plain screwed up. Take Nothing: a half-vampire child that has been abandoned because he killed his mother from the inside; feeling isolated, he runs away to New Orleans and bumps into three young-forever vampires that party in a black van. He then proceeds to get drunk, do drugs and have some sort of sexual encounter with everyone he comes across, including Zillah. Half way through, they find Christian, one of the only characters I actually liked and was sorry to see go, who makes the connection that Nothing is Zillah's son. And then they continue to have sex. Yeah... Zillah was incredibly weird and unnecessarily cruel. Did not like him.

The other part of the story was Steve, Ghost and Ann. The two boys form a band 'Lost Souls', and Ann is Steve's ex. There is an awful back-story to their relationship that I won't go into but will just say no matter how much of a bitch Ann was, I was still on her side. Ghost was the other character I honestly liked, a strange young man with the ability to see ghosts and hear thoughts. As if this book wasn't odd enough!

Full of random sex with strangers, doing drugs for the hell of it and killing your old friend because your new possessive lover told you to, this is not one for the light hearted. But definitely worth it for the fantastic embodiment of Goth 90's teenagers and the true Gothic horror.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Publisher: Norton and Company; Norton Critical Edition
Published: 1818 text, edition published 1996
Pages: text: 156, plus critical essays: 334
Synopsis (according to Goodreads):
At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein. 

Review:

Despite all the expectations and stereotypes of Frankenstein, I did not know what to expect from this book. And yet, I really enjoyed it, much more than I thought I would. There were obvious Gothic elements, which is why I was reading it in the first place, like the Sublime description of the mountains, the far away and foreign element of the setting, the alien and terrible nature of Frankenstein's experiments etc.. 

I really liked the story, even though it was fairly predictable: the story of a young man, aiming to do good in his field of medical and anatomy, only to hate what he has created, how it destroyed his life and livelihood. Some of it was predictable, probably because I expected it, and some parts did annoy me, like how feminine Victor Frankenstein was sometimes. But the monster's story was actually a little bit heartbreaking; it was awful how cruel the human kind can be with things they do not understand. But it was a little annoying as to how well spoken the monster was - or maybe I just expected him to only be able to say 'urg'. 


Even the language of the novel was not too much to put me off, like some other books for this module I've tried to read. Easy to read, easy story to understand and follow along, I enjoyed it enough to recommend it but will admit that it is not for everyone - especially someone expecting the gore and violence that typically comes with the image of Frankenstein.