Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein and she was married to the poet Percy Shelley. You probably already knew that. Did you know her father was a philosopher and her mother was also philosopher and a feminist? That her mother died when she was only eleven days old? 

Mary's father encouraged Mary to adhere to liberal political theories and one of his followers, Percy Shelley, became Mary's lover while he was still married.  He left his pregnant wife to be with sixteen-year-old Mary.

Mary broke the rules. She ran off with Shelley, had his babies prior to being married, marrying Percy Shelley after the death of his wife. Shelley drowned when he was only twenty-nine years old. After that Mary devoted herself to writing and to the raising of their only surviving child.

Mary Shelley died at the age of 53 of a brain tumor. 

I vacillated on how many stars to give this book. Four stars? The story idea is great and if it isn’t a true story, it sure comes off as one. The dialogue is top notch. 

Two stars? I got lost. I had to ask myself several times, where am I now? Why can’t the author at least make the setting clear each time the character goes back and forth in time?  What year is it when we are in the present? How old is this character now? She was born in 1964, but when we are in the present some of the things mentioned don’t sound like today. The ending is meant to be a cliffhanger so you’ll read the next book. Okay. But the type of cliffhanger isn’t fair. This book should have told us who she is really seeing in the end. That would be the cliffhanger. This ending irritated me. The characters aren’t likeable. The main character is extremely selfish and disrespectful, even when far beyond her teenage years. Ah, wait. She does have redeeming qualities. She wants to work. She wants to be productive. She wants to conquer her mental illness, and the illness she has is major. Conquering it can’t be an easy feat. Finally, the book needs to be edited by a pro. There are misspelled words, wrong words, formatting errors and odd tense choices throughout.

Back to four stars?  In some ways this book is brilliant, and it is always interesting. If the storytelling is irritating and lacks clarity it is because it is mimicking the predicament of its main character. Everything is through her eyes and since she is off, the storytelling has to be off. In the end it works.

So I split the difference and gave the book three stars.  It won’t be for everyone, but for readers fascinated by mental illness and how a person copes, this book is perfect.  It certainly is unique. I’m glad I read it.

I’ve always loved Boris Karloff.  As a kid I wrote him a letter telling him that I knew he didn’t mean to kill that little girl in the Frankenstein movie. Remember? He sits with her beside a lake as she pulls petals from a daisy and when the petals are gone he gets frustrated and throws her in the water. She drowns.  We don’t see her drown. We see her lifeless body being carried into town.  

I read somewhere that he got more fan letters from children telling him the same thing I told him than any other sort of fan letter.  Guess there were a lot of kids like me. I got an autographed photo of Boris for my effort.  Wish I could find it. 

At first I thought I was going to love this book.  The setting, Ms. Locke's ability to paint pictures with her words, and the story were great. But as I read on, the enormous amount of detail on every page and the over abundance of characters made the read tedious. I started to be glad Ms. Locke repeated herself so I could keep everybody straight. I still liked the book, but was disappointed that what started out so wonderful, sort of fizzled.