A review by unlikelyplaces
Mary or the Birth of Frankenstein by Anne Eekhout

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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