I'm a Reading Glasses podcast listener and when Brea mentioned that she had written a graphic novel about a descendent of Mary Shelley I knew I had to find it. Brea is hilarious on the podcast and it shines through in this book. I really enjoyed the writing and the art was beautiful. The story was quick and while it starts off a bit dark, it get much lighter and has a good message towards the end.

This book with its style of illustration and its history draws a lot of attention, as you read it, the illustrations surround you and the story becomes more fluid, the story in itself is interesting, and I have made a great graphic novel

When I was finished reading, I immediately went to look up a short biography of Mary Shelley, because I wanted her to have this legacy of descendants. I would love to read more of Shelley's adventures with the monsters in her world, so I hope there's plans for a second volume.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I first started this, I wasn't sure I'd enjoy it. Seemed a bit on the slow and cliche side (Mary is a broody teen who is feeling like she doesn't know her place in the world-a relatable, if cliche character arc). However, fairly quickly I started enjoying it. Mary's introduction to the world of the supernatural is both exciting and humorous. The concept of her "powers" is a creative way to connect the Shelley line. I look forward to seeing where the series goes from here.

Recommended for fans of supernatural adventure and mystery.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Mary is a fantastic graphic novel about Mary Shelleys great-great-great-great granddaughter and tells the tale of the youngest of a long line of Mary's related to the late Mary Shelley. This Mary is a young teenager who doesn't know what she wants to set out doing as a career in her future and who gets hassled off her mother, aunt and gran to be something such as a famous novelist. Mary meets a stranger one evening and the story takes flight from there.
The graphics in this novel were amazing and really added depth to the story.
My only gripe is I wish the story would have ended better as I felt it wasn't ended as well as it could have been.

First. I like the art., it’s beautiful and very catchy to me.

The concept is pretty interesting and I kind of like how the main character is the descendant of Marry Shelly and sadly I haven’t read any of her books .

In terms of the story telling, I liked that it was kind of a fast paced but it was also kind of too much that some details might be left out and would turn out to be incoherent scenes.

The only thing that didn’t settle much to me is that our main character which is Mary is kind of unrealistic and it just didn’t work well to me.

This graphic novel caught my attention as I liked the aspect of the character being related to Mary Shelley - author of Frankenstein and every now again I do enjoy reading graphic novels. In Mary, we are introduced to Mary who is a high school student and of course related to the famous Mary Shelley. Each of her family members has the skill of writing which is passed down from generation to generation. Mary though finds it hard to stay awake at school and is worried she isn't going to find a passion for writing which is hard when the rest of the female generations are so successful and well-known. It looks as though she has inherited the ability of healing and being a doctor of sorts, which makes sense as her father is a doctor. The thing though is that because she is related to Mary Shelley, she is now being made the Doctor of Supernatural and Paranormal creatures and being guided by a hottie named Adam whom it looks like her family is familiar with. Will Mary embrace her destiny or will she try and fight it? Find out in this cutesy supernatural and quick read Graphic Novel.

Fun graphic novel about made up descendants of Mary Shelley. Young Mary doesn't want to follow in her mother's foot steps and become a writer, but she doesn't know what she wants to be either. Then she meets a boy on a dark night...who is missing his foot! She is able to help him and discovers she has powers to help monsters....but does she want to follow that path either?

Fun little take on the descendants of Mary Shelley. The writing was good, the artwork was okay. The color scheme was interesting. Hopefully there will be more installments.

This is a good gateway into the realm of gothic and horror books.
With good artwork, it’s easy to read for anyone no matter how old.

This book crescendoed into being good but then came back down again. It was really interesting and I'm curious to read more, if there is going to be more. Mary is the descendant of Mary Shelley and all of her descendants have become writers in some way. Her family is sure she will be one too but Mary isn't so sure if she wants that path. Somehow she reanimates a frog during biology during dissection and weird stuff starts happening to her. Turns out Mary is a monster doctor??? She has her friend over to gossip about a boy, who turns out to be a monster, but gets wrangled into helping her with some monsters. After the event her friend spills a secret about herself that seems random but now she and her friend can be weird paranormal friends. The end was wrapped up quickly as well. Like I said, the story was interesting enough to have me curious about if there's more but some parts were really random.

3.8/5 stars.

This was a cute read! I enjoyed the story and the artwork, it was both cute and creepy at the same time. As someone who was once a teen not knowing what to do with my life, I really related to Mary (other than the whole able to heal monsters thing) and it was nice to see her come into her own and embrace what she wanted to do, regardless of her family legacy. I wish there had been more background about her abilities, and the romance felt quite rushed, but still a good read!

Oh, I loved this so much! As a fan of Mary Shelley, I was so curious as to what a graphic novel about a direct descendant would entail, and I wasn't let down whatsoever! I really enjoyed the art style and the writing, and it really drew me in almost straight away and left me wanting SO much more.

The Beginning is always today...

This is the book that I needed in High School and even early college. The pressure to know exactly where you are heading and what you are going to do for the rest of your life is tremendous at this stage and it Is also the time where we have the most pressure around what those around us expect us to be.

While I think this book definitely addresses the pressure from outside forces to pick the path that is right based on their expectations. Instead of showing someone choosing their own path and succeeding they show (world-altering) repercussions for choosing a path different than what is expected.

But overall this book is a cute read, with a happy ending, with heartwarming characters.

Imagine not only being named after the gothic inventor of modern science fiction, Mary Shelley, but also being the youngest in a family of award-winning authors directly descended from her - only without any idea what to do with your life. The protagonist of this comic thought that the pressure of her family name was more than enough already, when increasingly creepy monsters and spirits enter her teenage life, demanding her to become their personal, supernatural doctor.

I mean, this was fun! Mary's face and gothic attire in particular are a delight! I only wished that both the plot (like that of a 90s Saturday-morning cartoon) and the rest of the artwork lived up to the flashy gothic nature of the main character. The backgrounds were drab, earth-toned squares, all supporting characters outshone by Mary. More extravaganza please!

Prose (Story): Mary Shelley is a typical modern-day teen, if maybe a bit on the dark side. If she is dark, though, she had a reason: the overbearing legacy of being the great-times-5 granddaughter of none other than the Mary Shelley, the woman who became a legend by shocking society when she penned the iconic horror novel Frankenstein. Teen Mary is feeling the pressure of her lineage - for generations the female descendants of Mary Shelley have all proven themselves ambitious, successful novelists or writers - but somehow that bloodline seems to have run out in Mary, who doesn't want to be anything as much as she just wants to be. But when out late one night on the streets of her hometown in the rain, Mary come across a handsome young man limping her way. And when she finds out he's limping because he's holding his own severed foot in his hand - and has come to Mary asking her to re-attach it - the former goth-girl who spent so much time rejecting her heritage discovers that maybe she does have her own special talent, after all. Not to mention an affinity for attracting monsters.

Don's (Review): An interesting premise that, after a slightly slow start in building its world, blooms nicely into an original graphic novel about a young girl who believes she's pretty much coasting through life - not to mention trying to keep her pushy mother, aunt, and grandmother from driving her crazy by telling her she must be wonderful, somehow - who learns, with the help of a cute and possibly-dead boy, a Harpy, and a stuff bunny possessed by the spirit of Shirley Jackson, that her special gifts, indeed, might be the most important of all - not to mention save the monser community from extinction. The premise is great and mostly works, artwork suitably dark with shades of black and blue and purple, the writing especially strong in letting readers feel Mary's angst as a teen. If anything, I just wished for things to go on after the generally fulfilling Big Finale ... so much so that, if anything, I'm hoping at some point for a sequel. Oh yeah, and I seriously want my own Shirley Jackson-possessed bunny! Some toy manufacturer should seriously jump on this! 4/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a fun graphic novel! I loved the friendship featured and the budding potential romance is adorable! The side characters both human and monster alike had so much personality and charm! I think Ghost Bun Bun was my favorite of all but I enjoyed the harpy too!

And I LOVED the art style! Always an important part of a graphic novel and this artist nailed the vibe of the story so well!

Angsty teenager Mary Shelley is not interested in carrying on her family’s celebrated legacy of being a great writer, but she soon discovers that she has the not-so-celebrated (and super-secret) Shelley power to heal monsters, just like her famous ancestor, and those monsters are not going to let her ignore her true calling anytime soon.

The Shelley family history is filled with great writers: the original Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, the acclaimed mystery writer Tawny Shelley, cookbook maven Phyllis Shelley…the list goes on and on. But this Mary Shelley, named after her great-great-great-great-great grandmother, doesn’t want anything to do with that legacy. Th2020en a strangely pale (and really cute) boy named Adam shows up and asks her to heal a wound he got under mysterious circumstances, and Mary learns something new about her family: the first Mary Shelley had the power to heal monsters, and Mary has it, too. Now the monsters won’t stop showing up, Mary can’t get her mother Tawny to leave her alone about writing something (anything!), she can’t tell her best friend Rhonda any of this, and all Mary wants is to pass biology.- Goodreads

I love Mary Shelley more than her book. Her life story, although not so entertaining to her, is the perfect story that captures you and makes you fall in love. With that being said, I read almost anything related to her including retellings.

This graphic novel was okay. I didn't really care for the characters or Mary's angst. I did like the fact that the author plays upon the fact that all the women following the original Shelley were successful in their given fields and not just regular successful but exceptional. I understand the pressure and I know it sucks but that dragged on throughout the book even as she found her way.

I know this is an introduction but I wanted to be captivated and invested. I really wasn't.

Overall, 2 Pickles

Nice reading but with a somewhat "rough draft" pace. The graphic style is dark and the story seemed perfect for Halloween: indeed, the story is spooky and in the theme!
I liked my reading, but I had a problem with the rhythm: the plot takes a long time to settle, and after all the action follows too quickly for my taste.
I also found Mary to be quite stoic: she didn't seem so impacted by seeing wounded monsters show up to her ...

In short, it was a nice read but which will have, I hope, a second volume to develop a little more the adventures of Mary!

A really nice graphic novel with dark colors.
The drawings are well done and gloomy a bit like the story.
I found the beginning a bit 'confusing, but once the gear is in gear, the story runs smoothly and in no time you are already at the end of the booklet.
Nice, I hope in other volumes to come.