This was a fun read! Let me just start by saying that I love the art and Mary’s goth vibes.

Mary Shelley is the descendant of famous writer Mary Shelley. With such legacy expectations are high, most women in their family were educated in literature and became succesful writers, just like Mary’s mom who hopes the same will be true for her daughter. Mary however, is not really feeling it. She does not enjoy the events her mother drags her to, and she isn’t very good or even interested in writing. This leads to arguments at home, her mother insisting on choosing her path while Mary just wants to figure out what she wants to do with her life. Soon, she learns she has a gift after all, she can help monsters. Is this something she wants for herself though? And what about her family, what happens when they find out?

The art was great and I love the intro part, being introduced to the family by the original Mary and the family’s famous members,

I really enjoyed Mary’s character, she is quirky and fun. She is a true goth and I loved every outfit of hers. It was great that she sometimes interrupted the narration, especially as she was talking about being a lousy writer. I loved that she had a good friend, who was by her side through the creepy parts too. I would have loved to learn more about her. Mary’s family obviously cares about her, even if she often butts heads with them, mostly her Mom about her future choices.

Adam, was cute and a very nice person but I am a bit iffy on the age gap, supernatural being or not.

I found the monsters a bit random, laser eyed demons? A not-quite-dinossaur? Talking possesed stuffed animals? But overall they were cute.
I felt like there could have been more worldbuilding done, we didn’t learn a lot about demons or why they were worse than ghosts.. There was a pact mentioned several times between monsters and humans but we never learned the details. I would have loved if we got to learn more about the infamous Guidebook but there seemed no time for it. Although there is a fun little monster guide at the end of the book which was very cute.

I don’t know if the part about the original Mary Shelley being a goth and having famous parents were all true, but this book made me want to learn more about her.

This was a fun read but I am not sure if there is any sequel planned, the story did not end on any particular cliffhanger. I enjoyed this a lot as a standalone, I don’t know if I’d be hyped enough for a second book though.

A really fun idea translated well into his medium. Definitely think this is the best medium for this story; it really allowed the teen angst in Mary's expressions brilliantly.

I loved the idea of this story. How Mary Shelley, an amazing woman in her own right, has this amazing legacy that she's passed onto her family. And that they had taken her inspiration and become powerful women themselves. Then there's teenage Mary who doesn't know what to do with her future, but had inherited monster healing powers from her namesake. Genius.

I was a little thrown at the start, it wasn't immediately obvious to me that our Mary was narrating this story.

I would probably put this story more in the middle grade category that young adult. It moved quite fast and there wasn't a lot of detail. I feel that whilst it's a graphic novel and will obviously never have the depth of a written novel, the stories are still a bit more complex in other YA graphic novels.

Though this was a great beginning to this series and I thoroughly enjoyed Mary finding her destiny and becoming an essential part of a new community. Very intriguing.

I really loved the concept of this. Mary is the Great (x5) Granddaughter of Mary Shelley, and while her whole family consists of famous writers, she does not know if that's what she wants to do in life.
She then figures out that she can heal monsters and that monsters are real.
However, the execution was a bit lacking for me. I did not feel that we had enough time to process each new element before more reveals were given to us. There were reveals about Mary, her family, her friends, the monsters, and some sort of demon creature that is coming after her.
All these elements just felt thrown together and I wanted more from it.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love the meaning behind this; telling women you don't need to live up expectations and you can make your own path. Its your life and you should do what makes you happy. The artwork is amazing and the characters are detailed beautifully. Each character's personality and back story is very well thought out.

This graphic novel was not my cup if tea but it was quite interesting, especially the main character and the monsters.

Thank you for the chance to read in exchange for an honest review.

Right away, some of the strengths of this graphic novel were the premise and illustration qualities. The premise is that a descendant of Mary Shelly is modern day angst filled teenager trying to figure out who/what they are. Turns out some sort of medium or something. Therein lies the cons of this — there is so much going on, so much to take it panel but panel, that by the time i got to the monsters and other figures, I was confused and quite frankly disengaged. The story speeds up fully and doesn’t stop until I was left wondering how this would’ve been better imagined as part of a series or at least split up by sections better

Mary Shelly's great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter has powers that allow her to heal monsters? Is a great concept for a graphic novel. Unfortunately, the structure of the novel was a little muddled and the storyline became confused. I could figure it out but I did have to read several pannels over again to fully understand what was going. Outside of this issue, I really liked the novel. It was hilarious and fun and was just a nice light read. Yishan Li's artwork was stunning and perfectly complimented the spooky-estic vibes. I enjoyed reading Mary and would read the next installment but it did have a few flaws.

This graphic novel had a lot to promise but I feel like in most aspects it failed to deliver them.
I had no problems with the style or quality of the illustrations, they were very pretty and suited the "teenage angst" vibe.
But the procession of events in the story don't make a lot of sense and while it is humorous for that reason, I don't think that was particularly intended for every single event. I think it would have worked better as the story of a girl who can heal monsters without the Mary Shelley bit.

*Mary* tells the story of, well, a girl named Mary. But she's not just any Mary. She's from the lineage of the great Mary Shelley, someone who accomplished a lot at a young age, even having all odds against her. And every other woman in her family has achieved similar, great things in their lifetimes, and expect the same from our protagonist. However, as every other young person nowadays, Mary is lost. She hasn't figured out her calling and feels pressured to do so, and that's where the story starts.

But, of course, you can't have Mary Shelley without a sprinkle of fantasy and paranormal elements. Or, in the case of this graphic novel, you can't have Mary Shelley without a bucket of sprinkles of fantasy and paranormal elements. With a wink to galvanization, which refers back to one of the original Shelley's inspirations for her novel (can you tell I recently watched Mary Shelley the movie), the paranormal elements are introduced in a quirky way, when the main character accidentally resuscitates a frog in her Biology class.

From cute dead boys to another famous author in the body of a plush bunny, the story shows us how Mary comes to the realization of who she is and what her purpose in life is. I wish it were that easy for all of us! I really liked the aspect of self-discovery that the book presents and the portrayal of someone who is struggling with knowing what to do with their life, because that's how we all feel at one point or another during our lifetimes.

The downside to this was probably the pacing. So much was happening, so fast! It was mini-adventure after mini-adventure, reveal after reveal, and we didn't have a chance to get to know some of the characters who have such an influence in Mary's life - especially Rhonda! What we find out about her is super cool but never really gets explored... The ending definitely left something to be desired, as I felt like it didn't tie up the loose ends that it had just untied.

Still, it was a fun story overall and if I had the opportunity to see more of what Mary does, I would do it!

"don't hit anything and have fun, right? rules for life."

I received this book from NetGalley as an eARC in exchange for a review.

Mary follows the great-great-great-great-probably some more greats-granddaughter of Mary Shelly. Apparently the women in their family are cursed.

I didn't dislike this book but I also didn't like it. I don't even know what opinion I have of this book other than I am just whelmed, not over, not under, just whelmed. The art style was cool. I didn't really dig the font choice. The story was original. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I would've liked.

I was incredibly intrigued by the premise of this graphic novel - a modern Mary Shelley trying to figure out how to fill some very large shoes? Yes, please! I wasn't quite sure where this story was going to go from the beginning, but the bit of foreshadowing in the biology classroom gave me a little bit of an idea. I thoroughly enjoyed the inclusion of various monsters. I mean, if you're going to have harpies and un-dead you might as well have witches too, right? Overall, this graphic novel was a whole lot of fun. I enjoyed the art style and I hope there will be more in the series as well!

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

This graphic novel sounded so unique and fun, I couldn't wait to dive into this one!

I find graphic novels to be a little hard for me to enjoy, and because of that unfortunately I didn't care much for this one. The artwork is cute and the concept is nice as well but what i couldn't get past was the pacing. Now, I'm all for action-packed and fast pacing but this was just too much.

I felt like things were constantly thrown in one after the other and way too close together. One thing is for sure, the action doesn't stop in this one. I also wasn't too big of a fan regarding the romance in this. It seemed very thrown in and there wasn't chemistry (haha) between the characters and it felt like our main character was forcibly written to pine after a character we know pretty much nothing about.

Sadly, I was let down with this one. But if you're a fan of Shelly then I do recommend to try and give it a shot! Just because I didn't like it much doesn't mean you won't!

This is a very good graphic novel. The story is very unique, I love Mary as a character, and the art is fantastic. I love the idea that Mary Shelley and her descendants have the ability to heal monsters and it’s executed in a way that I think really honors Mary Shelley.

My only complaint is that while Mary Shelley, the character, is well developed, none of the other characters are. For being as short of a story as it is, I think too many characters are squeezed in and it doesn’t really work for me. Focusing more on either Rhonda, Aunt Macy, Adam, Shirley, or Polly would have added a lot more to the story, rather than just brushing over all the characters. In general, this could have been improved upon by another 50 pages. The story is also a bit clunky in the transition from scene to scene.

Don’t get me wrong though, this is still a fun read. I laughed out loud at certain parts and the art is one of my favorite styles. I hope the story continues because I’d love to see more from Mary’s world.

I found this to be a very fascinating graphic novel and I'm curious to know more about it in the next installment. :)

3.5

this was fun but there was SO much going on. I think this could have done with maybe 30/40 more pages as it felt as if we just jumped from one plot point to another with no real development of the story. I did really enjoy the character of Mary and her typical teenage behaviour, as well as her friendship with Rhonda. However, everything moved so fast that it all felt a bit underdeveloped, and that is my main issue with this graphic novel.

I really enjoyed the art style and how it really fit the mood of the story, and I think if you like Mary Shelley and Frankenstein this would be worth picking up, especially since it is a very fast read.

Mary: The Adventures of Mary Shelley's Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Granddaughter is a thoroughly enjoyable YA graphic novel. The art is lovely and the story was really fun. It felt almost like what I wanted Twilight to be...a story of fantastical creatures with some romance, but our heroine has a backbone and tons of sass. I would love to see more of Mary's adventures, but if we don't get more I will definitely be checking out more from Brea Grant!

Thank you to Netgalley for a digital ARC of this book!

This was a very charming introduction to what I can only assume will be a series of books. Mary comes from a long line of of successful women writers, and her mother expects her to take her position in the line. Mary has no inclination to write, and instead stumbles upon her innate ability to heal other beings (monsters, but I'm guessing humans, too). Members of her immediate family are introduced, and the reader gets a good impression of their personalities.

The overall story was interesting. I'm not sure if I found Mary's reaction to her discovering her powers to be very convincing, but it seems that as she is fleshed out over more stories, her character will be easy to like. And, while it's very convenient that other people in her sphere also discover having powers, I have no problem with that and look forward to how Mary will work with those people in the future. There is a bit of a love story that is really not needed, but thankfully does not overwhelm the other aspects of the book.

There are funny lines interspersed throughout the book making it really fun to read. The monsters and demons are crazy. Should be a fun series!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC copy and a chance to review this book.

I selected this graphic novel because Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of my least favourite books. Yes, you read that correctly. I can’t stand Frankenstein. When we read it at grad school, I seemed to be the only one in the class who was utterly unimpressed with the book. So, with those feelings in mind, I was surprisingly intrigued when I read the description of Mary by Brea Grant, and then once again surprised when I found I truly enjoyed the book.

First, the art worked well with the story. It had a great modern gothic feeling that, at the same time, never got too heavy. The art also went well with the book’s humour.

Which leads to another thing I enjoyed. The humour. Well done on taking a gothic story and turning it into a comedy. It felt very Adams Family-ish.

Finally, the actual story itself was completely engaging. What’s not to love about a frustrated teen who feels pressured by her family and just wants to figure out her life on her own terms as monster, demons and ghosts follow her around? It worked for me.

This was absolutely fantastic!!! I loved the story and reading it so much! This was definitely really cool way to talk about Mary Shelley and monsters. Also Shirley Jackson ohmygod. I loved that she possessed Bun Bun and just the little witty things she says throughout the whole book.

I absolutely loved this graphic novel. The idea of a descendent of the OG Mary Shelley (an author whom I greatly admire) dealing with the pressures and everything, was simply fantastic. I thought the art style was just as awesome and I hope everyone who loved FRANKENSTEIN picks it up too! I only wish we get a sequel!!!!!!!!