Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Mary

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Mary by Anne Eekhout

5 reviews

streberkatze's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The mix of historical fact and fiction was unlike anything I had ever read and made for an instantly engrossing read. The parallel timelines as well as the switches in narrator perspective worked really well and created a tension that kept me on the edge of my seat until the final page.

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unlikelyplaces's review against another edition

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2.5

Mary or the Birth of Frankenstein - Anne Eekhout

⭐ - 2.5

🎧

This one was a bit meh to me.

So I read Frankenstein last year after listening to a podcast about Mary Shelley’s life and have since been fascinated by Mary Shelley and the people around her because I think that she had a really interesting, if tragic, life so when I saw that this English translation came out recently I was really excited to pick it up.

There were elements of this that I really did enjoy, firstly, the translation itself was stunning. The translator did an amazing job at making this flow really nicely and still feel as though there was some creativity in the language. In my experience translated works often end up feeling a little dry but this was really well done.

The past timeline also had a little hint of a “magical realism” feel to them, as though Mary believed her own stories, which I thought was clever and gave it the creepy vibes that I think a book about Mary Shelley should have. This actually in some ways reminded me a little bit of “The Last Tale of the Flower Bride” with the dual timeline, the focus on obsessive relationships, the blurring of fantasy and reality, and the general dark gothic vibe.

Unfortunately, my major issue with this was the pacing! I think that in this case the dual timeline was a hinderance to the story where it just felt like nothing was happening in either storyline and the two didn’t really feel like they were connected to each other in anyway other than they happened to be about the same person. Normally in dual timeline stories I feel as though the stories each leave hints about the other and build at similar times etc but this just felt disjointed and random.

I’m also a bit confused by the decision to focus on a section of Mary’s childhood which, from the small amount of research I’ve done, the author almost entirely made up when there’s so much fascinating material to work with in Shelley’s later life that could have easily be used to explore the same themes. But that’s probably just me being a stickler for historical accuracy, I probably should have paid attention a bit more to when the description called it a “reimagining”.

So I think this would work for you if you’re a fan of “no plot, just vibes”, if you love “The Last Tale of the Flower Bride” and if you don’t mind historical inaccuracy for the sake of a story. But unfortunately it just didn’t work for me.

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james1star's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I found this book one of two halves. The first very good in terms of the writing which transports you, Eekhout is masterful with her words, there’s lots of descriptive passages and I did enjoy this. She paints quite a claustrophobic and gothic tale overall. The characters present are also complex enough and there is some nuances too. But then the actual story… meh. I didn’t really like it all that much and do wish I had DNFd it earlier on. The pacing was rather slow which does add to the tension but also made the reading experience quite a boring one that I personally wanted to hurry up. I had also expected more sapphicness like the description had promised but this doesn’t occur till the 60-ish% mark (maybe later) and if Eekhout wanted to explore Mary Godwin (Shelley)’s bisexuality in her book, it was somewhat lost in main plot of the the book. In some aspects I see that an explicit lesbian relationship wouldn’t really have been possible at the time and how queer people have constantly been made to repress themselves, not having the opportunities available but still I was a little unimpressed - Mary does express her areligious throughs and is clearly a strong character given the ‘place’ of woman so maybe more could’ve been done here??

The plot is in dual timelines: 1816 when Mary is holidaying with other poets/writes by lake Geneva, they’re sharing stories then Byron challenges them to write a scary story… leading to the birth of her infamous masterpiece that is Frankenstein. Whilst there she’s also dealing with loss of her first child and a marriage with Percy Shelly that’s already rather up-and-down considering his infidelity. The memory of a past summer comes to mind and this is the other timeline set in 1812 as she’s sent to the Baxters in Dundee at the age of 14. The Baxters have a tradition of sharing stories and with the family, Mary begins to explore more of what her mind can conjure up and a fellow guest plants the idea of bringing the dead back to life (seem familiar??). Whilst there she becomes come with the younger daughter Isabella who was distant at first having lost the matriarch but soon the young women become friends and both seem to start having more feelings as well. I’d say I preferred the 1812 storyline a lot more then the other but still not entirely, I just couldn’t jam that well with the characters and general plot which meant I kept a distance throughout my reading (well listening).

Personally, I found this book rather mediocre when I factor in the writing, plot, characters and the rest. I can certainly see it appealing to others but I did think it was too slow and I didn’t enjoy the overall storyline either so the middle ground is where my rating lies.

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kteq's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

This started to hit different about halfway through, and I became more invested as a listener. I’m walking away with a sense that this was a tragedy, primarily, with speculative historical fiction as a secondary element.

There is Eurocentric 1800s-typical convention and language surrounding gender, marriage, disability, etc., with one timeline highlighting how the Romanticism of Shelley’s contemporaries was unable to subvert any of that in a meaningful way. No mention or exploration of race or class; the translator makes an afterward about the biographical and geographical research that went into the original novel and its translation.

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elizastudying's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Very good! Sometimes reality and imagination flow into one, but I guess that’s also the point. Very lovely writing. This book won’t make as much sense if you haven’t read Frankenstein I feel.

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