Felicia's Reviews > The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

"Someday death will claim you. And I will not allow it. His eyes narrowed, and his voice trembled with fury and determination. You are mine, Elizabeth Lavenza, and nothing will take you from me. Not even death."


I love retellings that offer a completely different perspective and Elizabeth Frankenstein was the POV I didn't know I needed.


"All our rituals as humans seemed to revolve around birth and death—marriage being the exception, though my wedding had been a ritual intimately connected to death, given my choice of partner."


Elizabeth is no wilting flower in this story. She manipulates everyone in her life in an effort to secure a future of luxury and power. To her horror she discovers that her carefully plotted influence over Victor Frankenstein has resulted in a horror that she herself no longer holds leverage over.

"Perhaps that was why Victor was so desperate to imitate life with his own twisted version. He had never been able to feel things as deeply as he should; he had been raised in a home where everything was pretense and no one spoke the truth. Not even me. I had accused Victor of creating a monster, but I had done the same."


It takes big ovaries to take on the beloved Frankenstein classic but Kiersten White has written a flawless gothic retelling of which Mary Shelley herself would be proud.

Fantastic dark and creepy read! Highly recommend.

Now I'm going to go pick out the next book I want to read from this author.