A review by blossomingwish
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

4.0

8/20/19
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*3.5✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
It had its boring parts, but as a teenager almost very classic has boring parts (I would have been less bored if I didn't have to take annotations). Overall it was very good. The characters were described well, not just surface level.

5/18/20
 

I read this book last summer for my homework for school. I put it off till the last minute because i hated the way my teacher did annotations. That being said, it has by far been the best book i’ve ever read for school and is definitely a top 10 of all.

[spoilers ahead]

I love the way this book is formatted, with the letters telling the story it’s lovely.

In general this is some of the best writing i’ve ever read. The way the words are put together flows so nicely and although it is a bit more advanced it is still not difficult to understand.

The first chapters just explaining Victor’s family backstory are written wonderfully.

The way that Elizabeth is described is gorgeous, “her smile, her soft voice, the sweet glance of her celestial eyes, were ever there to bless and animate us.”

Victor also describes Henry with a very high regard that strongly suggests homoerotic feelings.

I like the talk of when Victor first became passionate with science. Also his question of human life “To examine the causes of life, we must first have recourse to death.”

I like to think what his fellow classmates thought about his interest in such topics or if they really knew much.

When I first read this I very much thought that there would be more to his research and I was surprised the creature was born on only the 5th chapter.

Now we get to the interesting stuff...

Victor hating his creation makes me soooo mad. He created this being out of his research and dedication but could not appreciate it because it was ghastly. I’m not sure what he expected. He was creating life from pieces of already dead humans so the fact that he didn’t consider it would look a bit strange or have a weird vibe is beyond me.

“His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks.” This creature came into the world already smiling and obviously having a kind soul. He just wanted his creators affection like any normal child/childlike thing would want.

He seriously went into a fever sickness for months because he couldn’t bare to look at something he created. This is so dramatic. He could sit there messing around with dead flesh but as soon as a life emerges from it he freaks out.

Henry nursing home to health is so gay. So is the fact that he didn’t even think about Elizabeth until her letter arrived.

Victor is so helpless. He creates a being then treats it like utter garbage but doesn’t expect anything to come of it? What did he think would happen if he let him wander around without a clue as to how to socialize.

I also hate how Victor let an innocent woman take blame for a death he indirectly caused.

Victor really just likes to play the victim card and be dramatic for a few pages.

I really like hearing the creature’s backstory. It’s probably the most important part of the book because it lays out who he is and why he acts how he does. He’d never kill someone if Victor has just taken care of him. People can also be so horribly cruel and it makes me quite sad.

I thought it was sweet how he tried to befriend the family even if he did it in a strange way, he knew no better.

It’s so interesting how much he was able to understand about speech and emotions just from watching other people. Proves that he is a very intelligent being although in a lot of media he is portrayed as stupid.

The backstory of the family he watches is also quite interesting and I like that it was included even if it wasn’t entirely necessary.

For a moment I thought Victor might have some character development and realize that his creation isn’t that bad and actually treat him decently.

Victor is so arrogant. He really thinks that he can let his creature suffer and that he won’t be punished in some way. The creature will take what he loves most as Victor had given him a life that was not entirely worth living.

I think Victor should’ve made the creature a companion. If he was worried about reproduction then he simply needed to not give them working sex organs. Not really that hard to figure out Victor come on.

The fact that Victor and Henry basically went on a honeymoon before Victor was married just proves they are gay and no one can convince me otherwise.

I was SO mad when Victor tore apart his female creation. He spent all that time on it just to back out the last minute? He basically put the people he cared about most by doing this.

For some strange reason the part of this book I liked the most and found the most beautiful is when Victor puts his second creation into a basket and dumps it out to sea. This is something he did simply out of self preservation to ensure he is not caught, but I found it to be a lot deeper than that. I like to think that although the being he made was incomplete it was still parts of people that would’ve been someone new. And when he dumped those remains into the water it was just so peaceful and ethereal. I felt as though that incomplete being could have some rest. Maybe that’s just me really liking water and the thought of being put to rest at sea sounds so calming but I still consider it my favorite moment in the book.

It was sad that Henry died even though Victor should have fully expected it.

I also really liked the biblical references throughout the book because the focus is on life and Victor being almost godlike by creating it.

The rest is just mainly Elizabeth’a death then Victor being really depressed because his foolishness resulted in the death of everyone he cared about.

The final letters about Victor aboard the ship are very intriguing. I liked how the creature saw Victor after he died and sort of forgave him. 

[end of spoilers]

Basically this was an amazing book that I would recommend to anyone. It is very enticing to all sorts of audiences so there has bond to be something you’d like. 

12/16/23
Frankenstien is a book that has stuck with me for years. All of the imagery and metaphors really changed the way I thought about the world. It changed my entire perspective. I honestly would not be the same person today if I never read it when I was 15. When I reread it this year there were themes that I knew to look for that previously I didn't notice. Part of this is because I read a biography on Mary Shelley about a month before I started reading it so I knew more about what was going on in her life when she wrote Frankenstien. This just made it even more powerful.