I was really excited for this one, but I’m not sure it lived up to the hype. It was definitely a unique take, and it felt like the time period where it was set, but I couldn’t quite tell what the book wanted to be about. A decent read, but not a memorable one.

I somehow happened to read two Mary Shelley-ish books in close succession. This one was more successful for me than the other. Eekhout shapes a story of Mary's early life, with a dual timeline that serves to accentuate the later timeline's discomfort. The book does a good job of mirroring the gothic feel of the time and the books, and gives Mary a complex and captivating interiority. The introduction of a sapphic storyline, especially in consideration of the "free love" opinions of her partner and her growing disillusionment with that relationship, was an especially interesting exploration to me. The writing was incredibly evocative.

cw: child loss

The premise of this was truly intriguing.

I’m not a huge fan of stories traveling back and forth in time. Sometimes it disjoints the storytelling for me.

Overall I wasn’t entirely engaged with this story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein was slightly interesting but ultimately just couldn't hold my attention. I think it was objectively a good book but I just didn’t get much enjoyment from it and wanted to hurry up and finish. My expectations going into it were for more of a horror-type novel and it was more…vague I guess? It played upon aspects of mythology but I would have liked more detail rather than the flashes to the future of a bunch of people sitting around writing and getting drunk. I was also a little disappointed by the ending of the main relationship.

If you like reading about writers with bad morals and vague horror aspects that leave it to your imagination, then it would be a great read! But for me it was…meh.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and HarperVia for this arc!

I wanted to like this book a little bit more, but I just didn't click with the writing. I will try again on audio and hopefully I can get more into this book.

So well written I was drawn in to the young Mary Shelly’s life.Frankenstein is a favorite mine the author writes so lyrically reimagining Mary Shelly’s sapphic life combining young love and gothic mystery.A haunting novel that I enjoyed from beginning to end .#netgalley #harpervia

The story of Frankenstein novel’s creation is nearly as famous as the story of Frankenstein itself. The multi-talented, semi-incestuous group of creatives gathering at Villa Diodati and daring themselves to outspook each other. So, in revisiting that alone, this book wouldn’t have much to offer. Accordingly, it does the smart thing and backpedals into Mary Shelley—then Mary Godwin’s—past to split the narrative and tell of a wildly intense friendship/romance Mary had with a tempestuous Isabella, while she went to stay with her family. There, amid that doomed connection, the readers shall discover the trace origins of Mary’s famous monster that later came to define her.
Of course, we pretty much know how Mary and Isabell’s story ends, because most of her life and 50% of the book Mary spends madly in love with Percy, her elfin, questionably faithful poet. So yey Mary, no type, quick rebound. Aside from that, there’s the potentially difficult thing for modern audience in such vivid depictions of teenage sexuality. Because, of course, modern audience prefers to judge literature the past from its own woke soapbox rather than contextualize it. But yes, reader beware, Mary is 14 and 15 in about 50% of the book and only four years older in the rest of it. And to contextualize that, yes, she fell in love with Percy when he was 21 and she was 16 and got pregnant soon after with their first child. And yes, being so very young did not stop her from writing a masterpiece. Some people just start early.
Anyway, that’s basically the plot. The star of this show is arguably the writing itself. It leans toward poeticism, but it is rather lovely and does a great job of drawing the reader in. What is more impressive is that the book is translated from Dutch into English, so kudos to both the writer and the translator. All in all, an interesting read, particularly for Shelley’s fans. Thanks Netgalley.

I am currently taking a class in which I just read Frankenstein. That book was reportedly written as a challenge when a group, including Shelley and Byron, challenged one another to write a scary story. Mary took the challenge very seriously though it took a bit of time for her to feel inspired. She then wrote a novel that has resonated for audiences up to the present day. Read the original to understand the sublime and what it means to create an amazing story and with the many questions that it raises.

Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein imagines these events during that strange”year without a summer” when Mary wrote the novel. Mary’s psyche and relationships are presented to the reader. Without doubt, they are complex. The author also looks back to Mary’s earlier life in Scotland and a relationship that she (reportedly-I don’t really know) had there. How did this influence the writing of the classic about Victor and the creature?

This is a novel (beautifully translated from the Dutch) that Mary Shelley aficionados will most certainly want to take a look at. It is atmospheric and interesting.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Via for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 03 October 2023

I enjoyed a joint biography several years ago about Mary Shelley and her mother. I thought I would give this fictionalized account a try.
I cousins get interested in the story. I didn’t really care for any of the main characters so that failed it ignite my interest.
This book was a miss for me.

I'd read a couple books already about Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein (Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley, and The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein), but Dutch author Ann Eekhout incorporates a radically different phase of Mary's life than Charlotte Gordon and the Hooblers. At 14, Mary was suffering a skin condition and a step-mother, so her father sent her to recuperate by the sea with family friends, the Baxters. Mary and Isabella Baxter soon became inseparable friends, and more.

Eekhout alternates chapters set in ghost story writing challenge 1816 with chapters set at the Baxter family's home in Dundee, Scotland 1812. Kids sure did grow up fast back then. Virginal Mary (14) and Isabella (17) constantly seem to be drinking wine and cognac, and then just a couple years later they're both in unconventional marriages (Isabella married to her dead sister's husband within a year of Margaret's untimely passing, and Mary's "husband" Percy Bysshe Shelley has impregnated her and also her half-sister Claire). But this story is about much more than pre-Victorian times gossip, it's about grief and abandonment and trauma, about stories and the psyche and memory, about the subjugation of women and love and freedom, about feminism and witchcraft and autonomy.

I'm not sure if it's the author's intention or the translator's style, but there were funny little bits that caused me pause, for their seeming modernity; for example when Mary and Isabella go for a walk and Mary wants to take along a bottle of water, or when Mary wishes her half-sister Claire would just shut up.

Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein is a dual timeline reimagining of Mary Shelley’s life before she completed her novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. In one timeline, we are with Mary in Dundee, Scotland, in 1812 as she fostered long-term with the radical Baxter family. In the other, we are with Mary in 1816, “the year without a summer”, on Lake Geneva in Switzerland with her husband Percy, their son William, and her stepsister, Claire. They’re splitting their time between their smaller cottage where they stay with William and his nanny and Villa Diodati, where Lord Byron and John Polidori are staying.

I absolutely loved this book. Adored it, even. Percy Bysshe Shelley is one of my favorite poets, and the mythology of the events surrounding what happened during the “year without a summer” at Villa Diodati is a fascinating subject to me. Mention Villa Diodati within my hearing range and I immediately will swivel my head in fascination. Not to mention the fact Mary Shelley is one of my heroes.

This book was originally written in Dutch, but as far as I can tell, the translation was exceptional. The prose was smooth as silk and never felt awkward to read. I don’t know if this is what translators want to hear, but it didn’t feel like a translation–it felt natural.

The book itself does take some liberties with history when it comes to Mary’s time with the Baxters, but since the book’s most fanciful, whimsical, and even mystical moments take place during this timeline it would make sense for Eekhout to shuffle some things around to make room for her narrative. Mary is only 14 when she arrives in Dundee, happy to be away from crowded London, her indifferent father, the stepmother she doesn’t get along with, and her overdramatic stepsister. She is immediately transfixed by Isabella Baxter, who is a year older than her, and they form an incredibly close bond. It’s here that Mary hears the most stories and begins telling her own. It’s here that Mary discovers the first villain in her life that takes something from her.

No one knows quite for sure what all happened in 1816 at Villa Diodati. We know this is where Claire Claremont fell pregnant with the child that Lord Byron would own up to fathering. This is where Mary Shelley started to pen her infamous novel. Some say this is where Percy Bysshe Shelley became convinced he saw his doppelganger one night. In Eekout’s book, however, this is the place where Mary Shelley remembers the villain she met in Dundee and the stories she heard there. This is where her anger at men and marriage grows. This is where her grief simmers and her depression deepens. This is where she takes up the effort to write a ghost story and decides to write about a monster, instead.

I will tell you that this book is all vibes, imagery, and emotion. While Eekhout is careful not to neglect her supporting characters, you can be sure the focus of her energy is definitely on the complexity that is Mary. You can tell she’s studied Mary Shelley extensively and has her vision of Mary down to a science because her characterization is utterly consistent.

The worldbuilding is lush and atmospheric and the prose is languid, even dreamy in places. It’s a well-crafted and beautiful novel and a lovely fall read.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Gothic/Historical Fiction/LGBTQ Fiction/LGBTQ Romance/Literary Fiction/Sapphic Romance/Translation

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I had such high hopes for this book but I lost most of my interest at about 40% in. IMO, the past chapters in Dundee added nothing to the story overall. There was also SO MUCH purple prose. Whole pages IN A ROW of Mary talking to herself and saying nothing.

I started seriously skim reading around 45% because I just had to know what the author was getting at. The ending of BOTH timelines was so anticlimactic and felt like I read a whole book for nothing.

*SPOILER*
We didn't even get to see Mary PRESENT Frankenstein!
*END SPOILER*

I'm just disappointed overall.

Mary Shelley has always stood out to me as an inspiration. She wrote her famous novel at 19 and created a new genre. But I've never really known much else about her life.
This book is told in dual perspective. On one hand, we have 19 year old Mary. Mother and wife. On the verge of her magnum opus. On the other, we have a younger Mary. Still just as much of a storyteller. Residing with family friends in the scottish countryside. Discovering monsters and first love.
This book turned history into fiction and it was difficult to tell where one started and the other began. The writing was interesting as the reader is not certain what is true and what is the imagination.
I wish that there had been more detail given by the author on what was actually true and what artistic liberties she took. I think the translation also made a few things fall through. there were some words that just seemed to be overused and took away from my enjoyment of the overall reading experience.
Overall, it was a good read, but it leaves me itching for a nonfiction version of Mary's story so I know what is true and what was made up.

Thank you to the author Anne Eekhout, publishers HarperVia, and also to NetGalley for an advance digital copy. All views are mine.

I was drawn to this book largely because of the title. I found it to be an endearing Sapphic romance between an idealistic feminist creative and a down to earth young maiden looking for her "match" but I found it rather short on the Frankenstein!

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. I love what this book and Mary Shelly have to say about introverts and writers. I have often felt this way myself. It is not that I am uninterested in the world outside, God knows that I am. But I have become aware of an ever-increasing interest in my own world. The dreams I have, the nightmares, my daydreams. I notice that the writers in my books have brains that work just like mine. A brain that connects what has never been connected, what perhaps is not supposed to be connected. loc. 360

2. This reveals so much about Mary's impetus for her book, and again, the larger themes her book includes. It says so much about timeless family tropes, in fiction and in life. So much intense vulnerability here, which the story of Frankenstein is known for. My father is the only one I love profoundly, but even that is complicated. But now, now that I am looking at this family, I think perhaps I was wrong. Maybe I do love people. And that idea makes me feel so light inside. As if I might just float away. Maybe it is all yet to begin. Maybe this is where it begins. loc. 587

3. A brilliant picture of young womanhood in the 18th century: ignoring the weight and heat at there backs to pursue the prize of connection and friendship. "Two girls in the sunshine." Loc.690

4. I like that this book is so feminist. These themes are enjoyable to me. Shelly exploring queerness, women's agency, motherhood, women's body independent of function and coupled with it. Though much of this material is unexpected, it offers a nice counterbalance to the subject of Shelly's famous horror story... if the author ever gets to it.

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. This sort of reminds me of SAY ANARCHA, speculative nonfiction, where the author dredged countless documents for material and then uses the research to inform a narrative. It's an interesting approach to historical stories. I find the form very entertaining!

2. Honestly, this goes in a completely different direction than I expected it to just from the title. I'm 70% of the way through the book, and I've yet to see any connection to Mary's famous book, Frankenstein.

3. I did not like how this ended. What should have been a subplot ended up subsuming the primary conflict. There just wasn't enough there. And what I came for never plays a role. I'm disappointed at the end.

Rating: 🔩⚙️🔧 / 5 monster parts
Recommend? It depends on how much you're expecting this book to be about Frankenstein, the writing of it, or the night Shelly wrote conceived it, because it's not, not really.
Finished: Sep 29 23
Format: Digital arc, Kindle, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
👩🏼‍❤️‍👩🏻 Sapphic romance
👨‍👩‍👦 family stories, family drama
👭🏽 female friendships
💇‍♀️ women's coming of age
📃 epistolary or diary form

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
While I’ve not the biggest devotee of Mary Shelley’s work (I read Frankenstein once for school, and while I appreciate what it did for sci-fi and horror, it’s not one of my favorite books), her life has always fascinated me, especially given how she and her circle seemingly espoused some ideals that many would consider “modern,” and I was always drawn to the complexities of that. Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein, originally a Dutch book by Anne Eekhout, is a great embodiment of that, exploring some of the intricacies of the Shelley circle’s domestic life, and more importantly, charting Mary’s evolution during two pivotal periods of her life, and how one influenced the other.
The timeline more people will be familiar with is the 1816 one, where Mary and Percy are not yet married, but living abroad, along with their young son, her stepsister, Claire, and staying with Lord Byron and John Polidori. I was surprised at first to see that Byron was addressed as Albe, but upon doing a little Googling, it appears that was Mary’s nickname for him, and I love that touch, but am surprised this is the first time I’ve encountered it, in spite of having read both fiction and nonfiction about Mary before. The domestic drama and partner-swapping is a major aspect of this portion, with Claire’s disastrous liaison with Lord Byron, not to mention the hints at her possible affair with Percy, coloring Mary’s complex relationship with her. And Mary herself deals with romantic tension between her and John. While these domestic dramas loom large in this part of the narrative, it does also highlight that infamous occasion during this period when Mary started creating Frankenstein, although as the book suggests, it was born of a seed planted much earlier.
The 1812 portion arc contains a bittersweet sapphic relationship between Mary and her friend, Isabella. I really liked this contrasting portrayal of Mary, showing a love other than Percy, and how intensely she loved at a young age, foreshadowing her future experiences. But more importantly, even at this point, given the circle in which Mary grew up, the power of creativity and story are embedded within her. From similar scenes of people sitting together telling scary stories to a scene of a “monster” that leaves an impression on her, it’s easy to imagine she might later delve into these experiences to create her own story.
While the narrative moves back and forth between the two timelines, the story remains interesting in both, and while I did wonder at first how it would all come together, I appreciate how it did, on both a personal and more broadly thematic level. From seeing these two incidents that could have inspired Frankenstein to charting Mary’s love life in two different periods and her growth (and not) in this area) to the almost full-circle nature of it all, with mention of Percy near the end of the book in the 1812 arc to represent the transition between the two, this was incredibly well thought out and impeccably crafted. And while a lot of the focus is on the domestic drama, there was enough intrigue throughout that kept me turning pages.
This is a wonderful book, and I’d recommend it if you’re interested in Mary Shelley and Frankenstein, or are interested in a historical fiction read with Gothic undertones, I’d recommend checking this out!

"A sapphic reimagining of Mary Shelley's youth, vividly exploring innocence, young love, Gothic mystery and the roots of her literary masterpiece, Frankenstein.

Switzerland, 1816. A volcanic eruption in Indonesia envelopes the whole of Europe in ash and cloud. Amid this "year without a summer," eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley and her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley arrive at Lake Geneva to visit Lord Byron and his companion John Polidori. Anguished by the recent loss of her child, Mary spends her days in strife. But come nightfall, the friends while away rainy wine-soaked evenings gathered around the fireplace, exchanging stories. One famous evening, Byron issues a challenge to write the best ghost story. Contemplating what to write, Mary recalls another summer, when she was fourteen...

Scotland, 1812. A guest of the Baxter family, Mary arrives in Dundee, befriending young Isabella Baxter. The girls soon spend hours together wandering through fields and forests, concocting tales about mythical Scottish creatures, ghosts and monsters roaming the lowlands. As their bond deepens, Mary and Isabella's feelings for each other intensify. But someone has been watching them - the charismatic and vaguely sinister Mr. Booth, Isabella's older brother-in-law, who may not be as benevolent as he purports to be...

With gripping mastery and verve, Anne Eekhout brings to life a defining moment in Mary Shelley's youth: the creative wellspring for one of the most original, thrilling, and timeless pieces of literature ever written. Provocative, wonderfully atmospheric and pulsing with emotion, Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein is a hypnotic ode to the power of imagination.

Translated from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson"

I am all about the birth of Mary Shelley's writing prowess.

A look at two very different times in Mary Shelley’s life. One as a wife and mother who is haunted by loss. The other a carefree young woman who experiences her first love while other influences are at work.

This book was well written and well researched. I didn’t know a lot about Mary’s life before, but this book opened her world to me. I found some of the scenes captivating because of how they were written.

I also, however, found this one a bit of a struggle. I wasn’t sure how the two time periods of Mary’s life really intersected. Both dealt with being haunted by love and loss, but it was never really explained why these particular parts of her life were focused on.

I struggled with the pacing of the book too. I felt there was too much detail on smaller things at times. Some of the smaller things went on for pages while some of the most important parts lasted a few paragraphs or less. I will say, however, I was much more interested in the younger Mary’s story so my critique might be based on my own expectations of the book.

This is a good book and it is also one that I struggled with.

The writing was fantastic, but also a bit confusing. I was hoping for more of a biography rather than a retelling, which I realize is on me, but I feel as if this story could have existed without the characters of Mary Shelley’s life.

I really enjoyed reading this. I am a fan of Frankenstein, and this reimagining made me fall in love with the story and Mary Shelley all over again. This was immersive and so fun to read. Thank you for approving my request.