Then Pain shot through her and she fell out of the blackness towards the speck of light.

She heard Viktor shouting. He was no longer speaking to her but to Igor.

“There was a reaction!” said Viktor

Another jolt of pain coursed through Eva. It pulled her closer. The shouts between the two men became clear and loud, as if they stood on the other side of a door.

“Give her more!” Igor shouted.

Viktor retorted, “Give her too much at one time and we will kill her! I know what I am doing!”

It is a courageous thing to take one of the best known pieces of fiction, an absolute classic know by many, a book turned into numerous movies and inspiring in its own right, and to re-write it. You run the risk of falling short of the original or even worse make it too much like the original so that very little of your own writing shines through. Michael J. Lee takes Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus, the novel written by Mary Shelley nearly two-hundred years ago, and makes it his own in My Frankenstein.

The story of Frankenstein is well known, but Lee takes the story and tells it from a slightly different angle, gives it a little industrial age twist and turns the story into something fresh and new. I’ll admit that when I started reading it I approached it with a little dread and trepidation, but it did not take long for the writing and the story to take control and I was hooked. The basic premise works out much the same, there is a Viktor Frankenstein and a monster, but from there the similarities end.

My Frankenstein centers around Eva, an uncommonly intelligent girl living in a small farming village whose life is irrevocably turned upside down by the coming of the new Baron Frankenstein and his plans to modernize the little village by dragging it into the industrial era. Viktor see the potential in Eva and nurtures that potential and Eva sees in him the embodiment of progress. Before long their teacher student relationship becomes oh so much more, and when Viktor’s secret project is revealed to her the tensions begin to run high as humanity and ambition clash.

There are numerous layers within this book that could spark any number of philosophical discussions and every one of them as relevant to today’s world as they would have been to the time when the original story was written, but all of it is woven into a well told story that will make you involved, rooting for the heroes and despising the villains.  Ultimately you will have to ask yourself what it is that truly makes a monster.

If you love a good story about romance, intrigue and conflict this is a book for you. I would highly recommend giving this a read, probably more than once, and if you love Frankenstein then this is an absolute must for your reading collection.

Related Articles

• Review: Frankenstein (jackieisreading.wordpress.com)
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