I am on such a roll of 4 and 5 star reads and I hope this momentum keeps up! I loved this story SO much. When I read Frankenstein on audio a little while back (you can see my not so glowing review here), I was continually surprised and annoyed by Victor Frankenstein and his man-baby ways. He was so brilliant yet also so pathetic and ill equipped to handle disappointment and frustration. How could any woman seriously fall in love with such a silly fool? His reactions were over the top and felt ridiculous to me but after reading this book it all begins to make a lot more sense. This is the story of Elizabeth Frankenstein, the one and only person Victor ever loved, and it is spectacular.

Elizabeth was taken away from an abusive situation by the Frankenstein’s to befriend their son Victor who had maybe done something terrible to a deceased sibling. It is never talked about but it’s easy to read between the lines here. Victor was never quite right, even as a child. When he and Elizabeth meet she instantly has his number and is just as wily (maybe more so) and brilliant as Victor. She realizes right away that if she doesn’t befriend Victor and make him like her she’ll be tossed back out like garbage and forced to fend for herself and suffer further abuse. She spends her childhood managing his moods and his penchant for odd behavior and she is the only one with the ability to calm and distract him from his worst instincts. They quickly become inseparable. She loves him and he loves her but it’s a strange co-dependent sort of love. And it fascinated me.

“I had no tiny fragile hearts to give him as an offering. Only my own.”

I don’t want to give anything away. I’ll only say that if you read Frankenstein and felt a little bit of what I did for Victor (annoyed, frustrated maybe a wee bit crazed) I think you are going to enjoy reading Elizabeth’s story. Her love for Victor is complicated and 100% understandable and the book pulls no punches with its darkness and its ruthlessness and its heartbreaking and devastating turns and it stays very true to the source material from what I can remember. It’s a brilliant story of survival and self-preservation and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I really liked the concept for this. A middle-aged woman, mother of three, descents into Hell in order to find her lost family in this modern take on Dante's inferno.

What I liked was the main character, she was a real person and not a likely main character. I also liked the concept, as I said, but I felt that in the execution is was sometimes a bit too crowded, and I felt less would have been more in this case. Virgil has been changed for William Blake, possibly because he wrote some works on heaven and hell, that I haven't read. Also, Agatha Christie alters as the guide. There are a lot of quotes from the works of people they encounter, but once again it was a bit too much.

Also, the artwork was not really my style. While I appreciate the desperateness that is clear from it, it was a bit too sketchy for me.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

     “I, however, was perfectly aware of my beauty. I considered it a skill, alongside speaking French, English, Italian and German. It was a language of its own, in a way. One that translated well in different circumstances.”

     This day is a totally freaking Sunday (but I want also to mention, that I am so blessed) because I am so excited to read a new book, though I can't wait for the new year bell rings and explosion of firecrackers but basically to start a new and fresh ideas, adventures, and story yet to be unfolded. 

     The book that you can see floating before your screen is my first TBR book this 2019. I don't really know why I got so flaunted and fond in the odds and beauty of a gothic novel. Yeah, given that I really can create mental pictures and images vividly on my mind, but the structure of story telling of one's persona in a dark setting gives me a complete sense of peace and relaxation. It sounds ironic, but dark images can also wrap me into his mantle of care.

     This book also MUST provide me a complete sensation of well-being. 

     One of the books that I bought during Christmas holidays, as a matter of factly, is this as my present to my self. So it's 8:09 AM now, December 30, 2019, the weather is perfect - Raining, the sky is dark, cold like a dew brewing itself in the grass, and a cup of tea! 

     So give me 3 days to finish this book, and I'll give you my clap and review! See yah!

I have never read Frankenstein, but I still really enjoyed this book. I thought Elizabeth was an interesting character, I didn't hate her but I didn't think she was a really great person either. I didn't like some of the things she did in regards to Victor,but I understand why she acted the way she did. I didn't like Victor at all, to me I thought he wasn't as flush out as I would have wanted him to be. I can understand why the author made him this way, because Elizabeth was the main character and she wanted us the readers to be more drawn out, out of the two

 But I just wanted to feel his characters motivated a little bit more. 

I really loved the storyline, and I did go back and read about Victor's character in Frankenstein. And I liked how the author kept some of that Victor but also changed things about that Victor as well. 

One of the things I didn't like was the ending, I felt it needed to be just a little bit longer, the ending just felt a little rushed, and I wish I could have connected more with the other characters. But I still really enjoyed the read.

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.

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 ★

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