For me, the artwork made the book! ( )

5 HUGE STARS. This is an absolutely beautiful book. The story is heart wrenching brought straight from the personal journals of Mary Shelly. INCREDIBLE. ( )

This heavily illustrated fictional memoir of Mary Shelley's life and the creation of her literary masterpiece is well worth the relatively short time it takes to read. Not a true graphic novel, as the illustrations could be removed without leaving any holes in the story, but its visual impact is just as powerful as the free verse narrative. I knew almost nothing of Mary Shelley's life story, other than what everybody "knows" about how she came to write [Frankenstein], and the fact that her mother, [[Mary Wollstonecraft]], was a very early feminist. Grim does not begin to describe young Mary's treatment by her own father and later by her beloved Percy Shelley and her half-sister, Claire. Tragic losses and betrayals punctuate her life, leaving her bereft and guilt-ridden. If you want to believe that great art arises from such pain, here is some pretty hefty support for that belief. If you're fond of the work of Byron and Shelley, you might want to avoid reading this in case you discover what pissants they really were. Otherwise, recommended. ( )

What an incredible, terrifying, sad, and oddly redemptive volume!

The dark and compelling illustrations carry readers as deeply as the poetic story of love, life, hatred, art, and death. ( )

Personal Reaction: I enjoyed this book immensely. The illustrations are dark and gloomy. I
have always liked the story of Frankenstein. I also like that a woman created and wrote a book
when women writing was not received well by the public, but a woman writing “horror” was
shocking. I liked this book so much that it is the subject of my book-trailer assignment.
Curricular Connections: (with Teks) I would read this book around Halloween. Before reading
the book we would discuss, as a class, our prior knowledge of Frankenstein. After reading the
novel we would discuss why Mary created the monster.
RULE §110.6 English Language Arts and Reading, Grade 4
(8) Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--
literary elements. The student recognizes and analyzes literary elements within and across
increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse literary texts. The student
is expected to:
(B) explain the interactions of the characters and the changes they undergo; ( )