Taking on a classic like Frankenstein is no easy feat. Kiersten White's retelling remained true to the original source material while simultaneously standing on its own in the genre. This was a deliciously dark and captivating read that left me wanting more.

Our story begins with a despondent Victor already at University leaving a love lorn Elizabeth waiting at the Frankenstein manor. She’s waiting for a letter from Victor after months of silence. She’s waiting for Victor to marry her so she won’t be thrown out of the manor and she reminds us ALL THE TIME. She’s tired of waiting so the story opens with her and the governess, Justine, traveling to find Victor at his school.

The novel is called the Dark Descent of … but she doesn’t descent darkly enough. She’s jealous and paranoid but that’s about it. She’s worried about her future in the manor because she no longer has her purpose of distracting Victor now that he’s in school and that’s understandable. White paints the picture of an Elizabeth who is jealous of the governess and friend Justine because she has a purpose and she’s content but White doesn’t go dark enough. If she was truly descending, she would be a manipulative saboteur but White makes her too altruistic. It is possible to make a sympathetic villain-look at Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones.

The writing is too one the nose. White makes is PAINFULLY obvious that Elizabeth is too dependent on Victor and will eventually grow to be independent. That’s the normal arc of many characters but White pounds it into to reader’s head that Elizabeth is a weak woman who needs Victor to save her. I eventually became bored with the story and just wanted Elizabeth to get a clue, grow a pair, and be her own woman.

White also doesn’t create a creepy atmosphere. There’s an attempt but I wasn’t transported to the urine smelling mud soaked 18th century German town.

I just wish White had have gone deeper into the mania a person is capable of experiencing. We just get some mild hysteria from a girl we’ve read before.

I continue to be impressed by Kiersten White's ability to slip seamlessly into the voices of such wildly different characters! And I loved the twist this book added to a classic that I was fairly ambivalent about as a teen - I think it's one that will make the story much more accessible to young readers, and one that builds on several of the original work's philosophical questions while adding new ones that Mary Shelley couldn't ask. Initially I struggled to find anything genuine to relate to in Elizabeth's narrative voice, because she spends so much time telling us how deceitful she is that I didn't trust anything she did, but slowly the real Elizabeth emerged and it became clear that her inability to be herself was kind of the point. But that was really my only complaint - it's dark, but it's meant to be; Victor is deeply unsettling, as he's meant to be. It took me a little longer than I like to be truly hooked, but once I got there I couldn't put it down. A riveting, creepy, thought-provoking read that I'm looking forward to sharing with my teens!

I feel bad for not liking this title. I really like the authors other books but I just couldn't even finish this one. I can't even point to a specific thing that I didn't like. I just couldn't get into the book. Elizabeth was not a sympathetic character and I didn't really care what happened to her. I might have to try this one again at a later date. But on first read I didn't care for it.

As a fan and teacher of the original Frankenstein, I always found Elizabeth lacking in character, so this book is a dream come true. Elizabeth has a voice, a purpose, and a reason for everything.

Elizabeth is an orphan, brought into the Frankensteins’ home as a ward to be a companion to their troubled oldest son, a young man whose fits of rage hold the family in terror. Elizabeth knows her situation is precarious; not wanting to return to her abusing caregiver, she becomes the friend that Victor needs, the only one who can soothe his terrible temper, and cover the traces of his terrible hobbies. As they grow older, the family as well the the household grows, and nothing is more terrible to Victor than Elizabeth’s attention being shared. Told in a series of events and flashbacks, this story is gothic and tells of terrible choices people make when they try to protect the ones they love.

This was super dark and intriguing, right from page one. I absolutely adored Elizabeth Frankenstein. She's my favorite kind of female character: manipulative and unafraid to get her hands dirty to get what she wants. I read Frankenstein for my Gothic Novels class a few years ago and I really enjoyed it, so I was so happy to see a retelling, particularly one from a female character's point of view. This book made me think, which I greatly appreciated. I would love to study the original and this retelling side by side (particularly with that group from my Gothic Novels class). I was so happy to see a character named Mary in this and she was a lovely addition - I love the friendship that develops between her and Elizabeth.

Once I started this dark tale I didn't want to put it down.

White has written an incredible re-telling of the classic story Frankenstein. She takes a side character from the original, Elizabeth Lavenza, and makes her the main character with her own dimensions and struggles. It is a fresh take that stays pretty true to the original story but with some chilling & disturbing twists along the way - I loved it!

I also appreciated White's note at the end of the book that discusses her appreciation for Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and gives a little more background for the reader.

Ho! How I liked this book. It didn't make cry like Us against you by Fredrik Backman, and it did not send me into deep thoughts or anything profound like that. I simple liked it because it was a damn good read and well written. The plot twists were on point!

I loved Elizabeth because she was deceiving character and I knew that from the very beginning. The story of Frankenstein from a different point of view... so refreshing! I mean, I never read the original book and I don't intend too; with Elizabeth's version of it is enough for me.

I loved the author's writing as well. Nothing here seemed odd or unbelievable; words seemed to sing together... I hope the books gets translated into Spanish so I can buy it for my mom.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this title.

I *loved* this book. A non-spoilery note for readers who are fans of the original text and who are worried about how this one handles the story: what I'll say is that the central conceit of the text is that in telling his story (in the original text), Victor Frankenstein left some details out. This book fills in those gaps. It's delicious and dark and creepy. And Elizabeth is a calculating, intelligent heroine who has had to play a game to survive in a world where that survival is based on securing a good marriage, and securing that marriage depends on how useful she is to the Frankenstein family (and in cleaning up Victor's messes.) Add in a badass librarian (what can I say, I'm a sucker for badass librarians and even more of a sucked for Gothic Romances--emphasis on the capital 'R') and you've got a great read!

#NetGAlley #TheDarkDescentofElizabethFrankenstein
Kiersten White has a way with creating a creepy and intrigued plot that makes the reader absorbed in the setting so much that before you know it half the book is gone. It is a sad and twisted re-telling of Frankenstein, but with so much depth and originality that you forget that this is sort of a tribute to the original. White does such a wonderful job with her female characters, you have empathy and feel the sadness that she implies. I love the dark, gothic feel of this novel. It does have some slow points, but it doesn’t take away from the plot or the overall atmosphere of the novel.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the E-Arc copy of The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein.

I'm a Frankenstein fan, and this concept did not disappoint me. At all. I'm keeping this brief and vague because I don't want to spoil the plot—that would be a shame—but I will say:

<li>⋆ Elizabeth is like hall of fame Slytherin material, and I love her so much for it.

<li>⋆ This is dark and creepy and Gothic AF.

<li>⋆ While White crafts her own unflinching, unique story using the Frankenstein universe, I feel like many of the ~English major things~ she uses play homage to Shelley in such a beautiful way. (I'm not going to say what things, because so many spoilers, but I was really impressed.)

<li>⋆ I often skip author's notes, but I enjoyed the ones at the end of this.

<b>tl;dr</b>: Creepy, dark, Gothic, cunning, feminist fun. I'd like to think Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley would approve.

This book was fantastic! It was creepy, scary and sad but it was so brilliantly done. It was a fresh breath on the original story. I'll be recommending this title to a lot of people!

I have been a fan of Kiersten’s writing from the beginning. Of all her books, this may be my favorite. It was dark and complicated and wild and brave. Elizabeth is a unique voice. Fans of Frankenstein will find much to love here. They may even find, as I have, new reasons to reread it and learn more about its young author Mary Shelly.

There were parts of this book that I really loved, and others that sat a little strangely for me. Part of the problem is that I'm very well-acquainted with the source material. I found some of the interpretation the author laid out in her note to be grating and a little disrespectful of MWS's life and choices. That said, this is a well-written book with an interesting spin on the original. I feel several of the choices regarding the creature were a little too revisionist, and Victor became a caricature by the end. The author shines best when dealing with the female characters. There were points where the plot rushed, and I feel the shades of gray inherent in the original Frankenstein were missing.

Not quite a 3 but not quite a 4. Arc provided by NetGalley.

Wow the momentum of this book was amazing. The main character was well-developed and complex, not quite a villain but not quite a hero. The side characters were interesting if not quite as developed. It was a really interesting character study. I wasn’t sure which way the book would go.

Then, about 60% of the way through, it started to get repetitive. The development of the lead stagnated. It all started to feel very rushed and cobbled together.

I still think the author is very talented and this is a strong standalone but the last half of the book weakened it for me.

I'll admit I've never read Frankenstein. It's been on my mental "to-read" list for forever; I even picked up a copy of the novel to read one of these days. However, I'm familiar enough with the plot (and I know who the true monster of the novel is) and I adore Kiersten White, that I went ahead and requested the novel.

Whoo-boy am I glad I did. I'd like to start off this review by saying that you don't need to have read Frankenstein to enjoy this novel. Sure, it helps, but this novel sets itself up just fine.

Kiersten White does an excellent job of setting up the mood for the story. The story gets super creepy without you even realizing it. You're just reading along (at a great pace because the story is just that readable) and then *bam* an unexpected noise happens and you flinch so hard you almost fall off the couch. I'm not saying that happened or anything to me when I was reading the book, but well. There you go.

Our female protagonist, Elizabeth, is just fantastic. She's a sympathetic unsympathetic character. You know you should hate her, but you just can't. You end up feeling sorry for her because life just sucks sometimes. I adore her because she just gets shit done. In previous novels, Kiersten White has created powerful, complex female protagonists, and she's done it again with Elizabeth.

The little nuances throughout the story are great too; hints about what is going on are given throughout the novel. The foreshadowing is just amazing. After finishing the novel, I just had to sit and smile because it was truly a well-crafted book.

My only gripe about this book (and hence the four stars) is that the ending just comes too quickly. This book easily could have been another 50 pages and I wouldn't have minded. It was just a great read that sucked you into the complex world (and dark descent) of Elizabeth Frankenstein.

I don't know if I would have loved this book as much if I hadn't done a few close reads of Frankenstein...but I thought this spin was fantastic! I've been loving just about everything Kiersten White has written over the past few years!