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hellobookbird's review against another edition
3.0
Words and stories were tools to elicit the desired reactions in others, and I was an expert craftswoman.
Elizabeth Lavenza hasn't had a proper meal in weeks. Her thin arms are covered with bruises from her "caregiver," and she is on the verge of being thrown into the streets . . . until she is brought to the home of Victor Frankenstein, an unsmiling, solitary boy who has everything--except a friend.
Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable--and it works. She is taken in by the Frankenstein family and rewarded with a warm bed, delicious food, and dresses of the finest silk. Soon she and Victor are inseparable.
But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth's survival depends on managing Victor's dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost . . . as the world she knows is consumed by darkness.
Henry had asked if I was happy. I was safe, and that was better than happy.
I'm familiar with the overall story of Frankenstein but I haven't personally read it myself. I think I would have enjoyed this slightly more had I read it since I've heard it gives a lot of nods to the original and some of the twists would likely be appreciated more because of it.
That being said, I enjoyed looking at this through the eyes of Elizabeth, a side character. Here, she is a complex character. She's smart and manipulative. And she sacrifices her self-identity in order to become the one thing that gets her what she wants: security. As another reviewer puts it: "Through her eyes, the tortured genius of Victor becomes a sometimes frightening thing, and yet nothing is as terrifying as being a woman in 18th Century Europe."
It was so hard, sorting through what was left of me when I cut off the parts that existed for others.
As she discovers more and more of Victor's activities, her drive to protect Victor in order to protect herself slowly crumbles to realization that Victor's idea of her safety is far different from hers. It isn't until she starts discovering herself that she realizes that sometimes safety isn't everything. There are other things in life that are greater than safety.
“You are mine, Elizabeth Lavenza, and nothing will take you from me. Not even death.”
Recommended for readers that like a dark tale and are familiar with the original Frankenstein.
chellecmorgan's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0
annie_bordeaux's review against another edition
i love the characters and this fresh take on them. everyone has much more of a personality than in frankenstein (which makes sense bc victor is very selfish so he doesn't include much about other people) but it still stays true to their original characters. it was fun to see a feminist take on frankenstein, even if it felt strange near the end with how much it changed about the story. it is interesting to see this alternate way frankenstein could've gone. the writing was really good and was arguably more gruesome than the original, or at least went into more detail. i am still not entirely sure victor was a psychopath in the original (i hate him no matter what) but as i said earlier, its interesting to think about. my absolute favorite part of this book is the ending it gave to the monster ❤
*i don't know what book the people who said this book has a love triangle read, but i think someone should sit down with them and explain in very simple english that victor is abusive and there's no love there, and henry literally isn't in the book other than the occasional flashback*
*i don't know what book the people who said this book has a love triangle read, but i think someone should sit down with them and explain in very simple english that victor is abusive and there's no love there, and henry literally isn't in the book other than the occasional flashback*
catbag's review against another edition
5.0
The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein ✵ Kiersten White
“While I saw the destruction of the tree as nature’s beauty, Victor saw power—power to light up the night and banish darkness, power to end a centuries-old life in a single strike—that he cannot control or access. And nothing bothers Victor more than something he cannot control.”
I can’t even explain how much I loved Kiersten White’s take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. She expertly crafted an alternate take on the well-known story of Victor Frankenstein. In Shelley’s original, Victor’s perspective was very clearly flawed, and White took this flaw and expanded upon it in this empowering, tragic, beautiful retelling.
White showed us how Victor’s journey could look from the perspective of someone close to him and expanded on what that would really mean for Elizabeth Lavenza in particular. She and other characters who are mentioned briefly or not at all in the original are fleshed out in this reimagining. In doing so, we’re given a fuller scope of how the actions of a self-centered maniac would impact the lives of the people around him.
“They had stripped us of everything we were taught made us women, and then told us we were mad.”
Through Elizabeth, I found myself seeing more realistically what it sometimes meant to be a woman in the 1800s and how they had to work within the limits placed on them by society. From this angle I watched with anger and sadness as Victor was allowed to be a madman and society would simply see him as an oddity, while if any of the women attempted to break free of the restraints society placed on them, they would be shut in an asylum and made to disappear.
“I am not saying you should not feel remorse or sadness. But if nothing else, your past should teach you the value of life. The wild and precious joy of it. Do not let Victor steal that, you. He has already taken enough.”
White also retains some of the themes of the original while adding her own, which I found to only add to both versions. In the original, we only see a man’s perspective as we uncover what godhood and humanity mean, but Elizabeth’s perspective added, for me at least, a whole different level to that. She was a woman in the world of a man who believed himself to be godlike, and she suffered the consequences of that. My heart broke for her over and over as Elizabeth tried desperately to stay afloat in a society that would never care about her unless she made it.
“While I saw the destruction of the tree as nature’s beauty, Victor saw power—power to light up the night and banish darkness, power to end a centuries-old life in a single strike—that he cannot control or access. And nothing bothers Victor more than something he cannot control.”
I can’t even explain how much I loved Kiersten White’s take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. She expertly crafted an alternate take on the well-known story of Victor Frankenstein. In Shelley’s original, Victor’s perspective was very clearly flawed, and White took this flaw and expanded upon it in this empowering, tragic, beautiful retelling.
White showed us how Victor’s journey could look from the perspective of someone close to him and expanded on what that would really mean for Elizabeth Lavenza in particular. She and other characters who are mentioned briefly or not at all in the original are fleshed out in this reimagining. In doing so, we’re given a fuller scope of how the actions of a self-centered maniac would impact the lives of the people around him.
“They had stripped us of everything we were taught made us women, and then told us we were mad.”
Through Elizabeth, I found myself seeing more realistically what it sometimes meant to be a woman in the 1800s and how they had to work within the limits placed on them by society. From this angle I watched with anger and sadness as Victor was allowed to be a madman and society would simply see him as an oddity, while if any of the women attempted to break free of the restraints society placed on them, they would be shut in an asylum and made to disappear.
“I am not saying you should not feel remorse or sadness. But if nothing else, your past should teach you the value of life. The wild and precious joy of it. Do not let Victor steal that, you. He has already taken enough.”
White also retains some of the themes of the original while adding her own, which I found to only add to both versions. In the original, we only see a man’s perspective as we uncover what godhood and humanity mean, but Elizabeth’s perspective added, for me at least, a whole different level to that. She was a woman in the world of a man who believed himself to be godlike, and she suffered the consequences of that. My heart broke for her over and over as Elizabeth tried desperately to stay afloat in a society that would never care about her unless she made it.
inkwellimps's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
2.75
I wouldn't recommend it to people who are fans of the original book. As a derivative work, I wasn't expecting to be so far astray from the original--Victor in particular I was very bothered by. To give one example early on in the novel,
I do genuinely believe there's a lot that could be said about Elizabeth, or anyone in her position, as someone taken in as a parentified only daughter (as Victor's parents seem to treat her in the original), but I don't think this book is the book to do it. I was eagerly anticipating how White would handle (spoilers for the original book)
For being billed as “The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein”, the majority of the novel portrays Elizabeth as a victim. The darkness in question is mainly Elizabeth trying to make herself appealing to Victor and ||convincing herself she is responsible for Victor’s murders via not knowing he was committing them||. She is rather hastily comforted by a side character, Mary, that she is not at fault. Shortly before this, Mary straight up tells Elizabeth that she is a victim.
I did try to give this novel a chance as its own isolated narrative after getting over that initial surprise, but beyond what it borrows from Shelley, I found it to be mediocre. There was a small moment I was genuinely invested around the 3/4 mark where it is revealed that
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexism, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Child death, Confinement, Body horror, Child abuse, and Death
Minor: Medical content
A few of the "child abuse" instances involve religious abuse.jpwilliams's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
anaheeta's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
snoopydoo77's review against another edition
5.0
4 ½ ★
This is a wonderful retelling of Frankenstein, but full disclosure before I start. It has been way to long since I read Frankenstein and only remember the basics and no details. So this review will only focus on the book read and not be compared to the original.
The first few chapters were a bit sow for me but it picked up fast and you get thrown right into the world of Elizabeth, Justine and Victor along with some others.
I loved the writing it was so nice and smooth to read even with sort if dual-timelines, which can be confusing sometimes but Kiersten White done an awesome job with it. It just fit and made sense.
It is about Victor Frankenstein and with that super dark, chilling and gory. It is not for people who have issues with gore, medical experimentation, use of corpses and child abuse. All that being said, it was super fun to read, it was dark, chilling but fun.
So if you looking for a chilling read, this is the one…… I enjoyed very much and had a hard time putting it down, in fact I stayed up super late to finish the book but it was so worth it.
Overall I rate this chillingly, fun book 4 ½ ★
tinky47's review against another edition
5.0
Elizabeth is an orphan, brought into the Frankensteins’ home as a ward to be a companion to their troubled oldest son, a young man whose fits of rage hold the family in terror. Elizabeth knows her situation is precarious; not wanting to return to her abusing caregiver, she becomes the friend that Victor needs, the only one who can soothe his terrible temper, and cover the traces of his terrible hobbies. As they grow older, the family as well the the household grows, and nothing is more terrible to Victor than Elizabeth’s attention being shared. Told in a series of events and flashbacks, this story is gothic and tells of terrible choices people make when they try to protect the ones they love.