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submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by shalafi@lemmy.world to c/books@lemmy.world

(editing an earlier post)

Just finished this morning! Spoilers below. If you intend to read the book, do NOT go any further. You need to take this ride with no hint of what's coming.

Nothing from the movies or pop-culture prepared me for this mess.

We don't get a solid description of the monster, but apparently he's horrifying to behold. What? Did Frankenstein make him ugly on purpose?! We're not told where or how he came up with the biological material, no grave robbing mentioned. An 8-foot humanoid just sorta appears on Frankenstein's work bench.

So the monster wakes up (we're not told what caused this), Frankenstein is horrified at what he's created...

Let us pause a moment. Frankenstein knows what the fuckin' thing looks like, he made it! He set out to create artificial life and accomplished it. And now he's scared shitless the moment his goal comes together?! Y'all, he had plenty of time to think on this.

...runs out in the street for 2 days, his bff spies him and takes him home. Frankenstein (who's not a doctor BTW, he's a college kid) runs upstairs and is relieved the monster has ambled off.

"Oh thank Heavens that 8-foot abomination before God is wandering around loose. Not my problem! LOL!"

The monster spends over 2 years in a shed outside of an exiled, French family's shack in Switzerland. And in all that time no one ever looked in there?! Guess he's got some sort of cloaking ability, because he runs all over Europe without ever being seen. "Oi! Luv! Was that an 8-foot humanoid monster in the woods?" "Nah, probably another hill giant. Damned illegal Norwegian troll immigrants!"

Monster has a tiny peephole to watch the family and learns French by listening to them. So where did he learn the English he later uses?! Also, he learned to read from the family teaching a beautiful Arab girl that shows up. Whole 'nother story there.

Frankenstein is such a panicky little bitch that every time he gets upset he goes into a fugue and goes nuts for months on end. He does this at least 3 times, if not more. "Boo!" "I have to go to the sanatorium."

The monster has already killed Frankenstein's little brother and framed a family friend, getting her hanged. He threatens Frankenstein to continue fucking his world up if he doesn't make him a bride companion. Frankenstein and bff are going to Scotland where Frankenstein is going to secretly do this thing. He takes nearly a fucking year touring about. "We spent 3 weeks looking at cobblestones." "Hadn't you better hustle up in case the monster gets impatient?"

Frankenstein spies the monster watching him work on the bride, freaks out and destroys her right in from of him. Um, I would not piss off an 8-foot monster with superhuman speed and strength. Monster says, "Catch you on your wedding night! K I love U bye bye!" Frankenstein, while looking around the house for the monster on his wedding night, sends his bride upstairs, alone. Guess what? Chicken butts.

Core of the story is Frankenstein and his monster making the same exact mistakes, over and over and over again. Then they lament for 10-pages about how sorry they are. Then they do it again. You can find the plot on any given shampoo bottle, "Lather, Rinse and Repeat."

So much more weirdness. And BTW, I think Frankenstein should have married his bff instead of his cousin, seemed way more into that guy than her dumb ass. Hell, I'm straight, but that dude sounded pretty tight!

tl;dr: Every single person in the book is a drama queen. 150 pages of drama queen. Makes one wonder what young Shelly was like IRL. Starts and ends with an exciting dog sled race across arctic ice! Everyone dies in the end.

To Mary Shelly's ghost; You did fucking awesome for a teenager! Most impressive! Next time, get an editor, dial it in. Great arctic chase though! Also, nobody in 2025 gives a shit what Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, or John Polidori wrote for that contest. Smoked 'em girl.

One more thing. Why did you blank out the dates? August, 8th, 17__? 1701 was a very different time than 1799. What were you hiding?!

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[-] AliasVortex@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Thank you! It's been more than 10 years since, but 10th grade me struggled HARD to get through Frankenstein (it was a summer read for my English class), for pretty much the exact reasons you've listed out. The doctor is just such a whiny little bitch, I despised every moment spent with the character and was incredibly relieved when the monster finally put the little shit out of his misery (and by extension put an end to my suffering).

The part of my brain subjected to entirely too many English literature studies gets it: the notion of being so caught up in if something is possible you don't stop to think about the repercussions is super transcendent of time. Like, I keep thinking about Oppenheimer and the other scientists of the Manhattan project, so I can absolutely see how it would be a horror story from Shelly's time. At the same time, the rest of my brain can't get past the doctor being incapable of learning any lessons at all.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

This was my third attempt. Never made it past page 8 before. Decided to man up and choke it down. What a ride! A ride interspersed with, dare I say, monstrous boredom.

2025: "Ay yo! What up bestie!"

1816: "You have been my finest love and best friend for all the years of my life! When we were mere children frolicking on the bounteous shores of Lake Geneva, observing as Apollo drug his fiery chariot under the brow of (whatever mountain that was), I knew our fates would forever be entangled! No homo, but I would sleep in your arms at any time you requested such embrace! <4 more pages to say, "All good in the hood.">

Shelly wrote like she was being paid by the word instead of entering a writing contest.

[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

A couple months ago I posted a completely different review of the book. I enjoyed it, but I'm glad that I read it, so that I could enjoy your review.

Spot on send up of the whole book! You really made me chuckle.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Imma need a link on your review. Stat.

[-] NochMehrG@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago

I do so agree with your tl/dr. All that whining really bummed me out!

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

When I read the book, the point that the monster went around unseen made me wonder, too.

But in hindsight, we are talking about the world of 1818. People went to bed at sundown and got up at dawn. About nobody left the house or village after dark. There still were a lot of dense forests in middle Europe.

If the monster could travel at night (IIRC, it could see in the dark), this was the easiest way. Just move during the night. Anything that kept normal people inside did not really apply to it.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Had not considered the time period! I can't run around the hundreds of acres of woods around here without someone spying me every 4th trip. But we all have flashlights.

And the monster did make a point of stating he went out only at night.

[-] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

Wait a minute. First, I completely agree that she won. By a fucking lot. But I have to hand it to Byron, he wrote what Polidori would turn into the whole fucking modern vampire genre. And I don't want to live in a world without The King of Cartoons playing Blackula. So here I am in 2025, caring very much.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

What did Byron write? Did it inform Stoker?

[-] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

The story that Polidori took and turned into The Vampyre almost 80 years before Stoker.

[-] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

My drunk ass missed the second part of your question. Yes! Stoker took elements of the tropes that were started by Polidori as well as elements of Carmilla. Stoker is the guy who put it all together into a cohesive package.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Can you shoot my drunk ass something to read?

this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2025
19 points (95.2% liked)

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