Reviews with content warning for Blood - Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match

Such a delightfully fun, silly, gothic adaptation that accomplished exactly what it set out to do! If you went into this book expecting a modern rom-com with all the usual tropes and themes, Angelika Frankenstein would surely be a disappointment. Instead, it's a wacky fan fiction that loves poking fun at itself, while exploring big themes of religion, confidence, and wealth in interesting ways. My only complaint is the picture-perfect ending, especially the romance's conclusion; although the insinuation of Mary Shelley's famous tale was a silver lining. This novel is certainly something different, but the book knows it — and I love it.

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dianaschmidty's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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megwilli's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

4.0

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maddireads13's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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debussy's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Words cannot really describe how weird this book is at the outset. It begins with Angelika and Victor Frankenstein perusing a morgue, looking for test subjects for their experiment: bring a dead man back to life. For Victor, this is to one-up his crazy scientist nemesis, but for Angelika it's to create the perfect husband. You see, she scares away all of her suitors, because even though she is rich and beautiful she is deeply, deeply weird. Like the book, which, I cannot stress this enough, is weird.

A few penis jokes later, Angelika and Victor have their test subjects. They mix and match their body parts. Angelika gives her dude a new, sportier penis. Then presto-chango and they have reanimated men running around. Immediately Angelika starts calling her subject her "love," and Victor's runs off into the woods. Angelika is dismayed that her test subject does not immediately love her in return. It's just so, so weird.

Eventually, Angelika's dude is named Will. Will has no memory of who he is, and she's further dismayed that he's more interested in figuring out more about his past than he is in boinking her. It's...so weird! I...okay. Focus. Will and Angelika eventually come to an agreement that they have to figure out his past if he's to ever have a future, especially with her. As a very, very weird historical sci-fi novel this sort of works. As a romance, it doesn't really. Never does Will actually seem all that interested in Angelika aside from his, um, member showing her affection. Will is not actually there for the romance much of the time--he's an amnesiac who discovers that he likes gardening and hiring help for his weirdo hosts. While Angelika does come into her own, growing as a person and realizing that the whole world does not exist merely to bring her pleasure, the book never really convinces me that Will is actually interested in being in a romantic novel. The relationship, when it does eventually form, is hampered by the beginning where when you get right down to it, Will is completely stripped of his autonomy and his anatomy for the whims of a person who is obviously crazy. It just reads more like Stockholm Syndrome than it reads sexy, especially as Will can't really seem to decide if he wants her or not. It goes back and forth with no rhyme or reason. Angelika has a steady character progression, but Will just never gets there for me. It made the romance super strange and unsatisfying.

There is also a religious twist that kind of comes out of nowhere, deus ex machina-like. I have no idea what to make of that.

Ultimately, I give this all sorts of points for being brave enough to be this bonkers, but I don't think the premise really ever works to deliver the romance it was promising. Will was just too flat, too pieced together (haha), and too ambivalent about his situation too much of the time. The writing is lovely, but the rest is just a big fat question mark.

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larissasbookclub's review against another edition

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dark hopeful mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.0

BOOK REVIEW

Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match / Sally Thorne

Rating ⭐️⭐️

Sally Thorne is an auto buy author for me, with the Hating Game being one of my all time fave books, so I was stoked when I got a #gifted copy from Hachette of her new release 🥰

the beginning of it was intriguing and had great promise but unfortunately throughout the story I lost interest and found certain parts of it too absurd for me. it’s a retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, however, this one involves resurrecting people in the hopes of creating the perfect match for Angelika.

I did really enjoy seeing Angelika’s character growth, she learnt a lot from her creation, and it was inspiring to see the changes she made to her behaviour. some of the themes in the book felt a bit unnecessary, or overdone, and it made the middle part of the book quite slow paced and overall the ending felt very anticlimactic.

I think if you’ve loved Sally Thorne’s other works and are up for something a little out of the ordinary, you may enjoy this one more than I did ✨

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levesc17's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This is the most ambitious of Sally Throne’s works, therefore it is the most unique and weird and wonderful. Frankenstein fan fiction, but make it slow burn romance with the mad scientist we don’t know from the primary source, Victor Frankenstein’s, younger sister Angelika at the center of it all. I didn’t know what to expect from the author of The Hating Game and Second First Impressions, but I loved it. Enjoy the ride and trust that all the fundamentals of a Throne book are here: banter, sexy kissing, and a satisfying end.

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