An outstanding piece of Historical Fiction and my favorite read of 2024 thus far.

Even if you’re familiar with the lives of Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley, this is an opulent and evocative portrait of their lives, and a fascinating window into how they collaborated and interacted with one another’s work.

Ezra Harker Shaw has done an incredible job of piecing together thorough and accurate research on their subjects and integrating it with imagined dialogue and musings of their own. It’s an impressive and successful attempt to get inside the heads of the Shelley’s, most specifically in terms of what inspired their writing and how they inspired and influenced one another.

The Shelleys’ story is a heartbreaking one, but it’s also a gorgeous story of devotion, mutual respect, and perseverance. And while we know they were both stunningly gifted writers, I think we can now safely say that Harker Shaw is a gifted writer in their own right as well.

This reads unusually quickly for the genre, doubly so when you factor in all the lush description that really makes the novel feel immersive. It’s my understanding that Harker Shaw is working on a follow-up project to this one about Mary’s life after Bysshe’s tragic death, and I absolutely cannot wait to read it.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book!

I absolutely adore the poets from the Romantic era, so I was intrigued by this book which is a work of historical fiction about Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley.
It’s clear that the author put a lot of research into this book and captured the gothic melancholy surrounding these two writers. But I have to be honest, this book just wasn’t for me.
I was difficult for me to connect to the characters and I think that was largely due to the pacing. I felt like I was being pulled along and told the story of what happened rather than experiencing it alongside the characters.

"The Aziola's Cry" by Ezra Harker Shaw offers a nuanced portrayal of the complex relationship between Mary and Percy Shelley, spotlighting their imperfections and the adversities they faced together. Their romance, far from idealized, is depicted with a raw honesty that highlights the struggles and turmoil within their partnership. Shaw's writing is both well-crafted and thoroughly researched, bringing depth to not only the central figures but also the surrounding cast, although the narrative occasionally feels prolonged.

This historical fiction spans from the couple's initial meeting in 1814 through to Percy's untimely death in 1822, charting their journey across various locales such as Rome, Pisa, and more, all while evading debtors due to their precarious financial state. The novel explores Percy's radical ideas about society and his challenges in finding a publisher who would embrace his forward-thinking views.

Shaw masterfully captures the essence of the Shelleys' lives and literary dialogues, crafting a story that feels akin to biography and not fiction.

my thoughts while reading this book: why was this so romantic yet so tragic? how can something be so sad and be so beautiful at the same time? when was the last time i read an excellent book?

i’m actually going insane, i just finished the book as i’m writing this review. it shattered my heart into pieces.

the aziola's cry is a historical fiction about the tragic love story of Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein) and her husband Percy Shelley (author of Mont Blanc) as they seek to express themselves freely while also striving for literary greatness. it discusses about motherhood, and the effect of literature on one's intellect, soul, and existence. It's about forbidden love, passion, death, resilience, and more. this book made me feel strongly attached to the characters; it was sweet but tragic, something that makes it such a good and devastating piece of literature.

THE WRITING!! I would marry every prose and poem in this book if I could. the writing was so lyrical, romantic, brilliant, adventurous, and captivating. I adore it so much. the writing made the book a hundred times better for me; I annotated a lot of prose, quotes, poems, and passages! I believe that if you delight in classics and/or specifically Frankenstein, you will love this because this book also mentions Mary Shelley's inspirations in creating a masterpiece. this book felt like a classic to me, and if possible, I would love to see it shelved alongside other classic literature.

i'll be ending this review here as I don't want to say much about it yet because it's an ARC, and I'd love for you to read it for yourself when it comes out on May 7, 2024! i’ll definitely get a physical copy of this book. I'll annotate it and maybe think as to how a story can be written with so much thought and effort, making it so magnificent.

a big thank you and congratulations to Ezra Harker Shaw for this stunning book ! as well as NetGalley ! i can’t wait for it to be published and be loved by other readers like me!

The Aziola’s Cry tells the love story of Mary and Percy Shelley. I really like how the author has shown the flaws of Percy and Mary. Their love story wasn’t perfect. Instead, it was very challenging. Thus, this book showed the turmoil that both Percy and Mary faced. The story was very well-written. I thought it was meticulously researched. The other characters were fully developed. The only thing I did not like about this book was that it tended to drag at times. Nevertheless, I recommend this for fans of Her Lost Words, Her Determined Heart, and Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein! Full Review to come closer to Release Day!

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was "a reflection of her parents". Literary genius was in her DNA. Her mother wrote of sexual equality, her father philosophized about political justice. Their views were discussed in radical social circles. Percy Bysshe Shelley often received writing suggestions from Mary's father, William Godwin. Shelley's father disapproved of his son's literary endeavors.

Sixteen year old Mary read Percy Shelley's political pamphlets and felt that they displayed "a conscientious purity of heart." Additionally, she was overwhelmed by the beauty of his poetry. For twenty-one year old Percy, "Mary has become his first thought on waking...his feelings for her are too strong, and he is bound-legally- to his wife, and must content himself with cultivating a philosophical friendship with this young genius."

"What we need is a revolution of ideas...that is my calling...I am a philosopher and, to an extent, a poet...". Percy had spoken out against "the tyranny of marriage...a contract of law...where there is bondage, there cannot be freedom...". Mary feels a "deep and profound connection...". "As humans we are blessed with choice and shifting inclination and yet we are enchained by custom. I won't live that way. And neither will Shelley.".

"The Aziola's Cry" by Ezra Harker Shaw is an extensively researched rendering of the relationship between two remarkable literary minds starting from their interaction in 1814, and up until Percy Bysshe Shelley's death in 1822. It is a travelogue of sorts, in six parts, with stops in Rome, Pisa, Bath, San Terenzo and La Spezzia. Without family support, Mary and Percy, always in debt, spend much of their time in Italy hiding from creditors.

Percy said, "I must write as best I can and trust that the world will understand me...To write with her beside [me]. To have a companion in creation is exhilarating". Shelley's talk of "a free community unhampered by the restraints of modern society...the prospect of free love, of a community without property, of intellectual development and equality between sexes", was a hard sell to book publishers of the time. Could Shelley find a publisher for his works?

In the year 1815, a visit to Lord Byron's Villa Diodati in Geneva, was life changing for Mary. Lord Byron enjoyed gatherings where ghost stories were exchanged, "Visions....of headless brides, of wandering corpses...the room charged with restless jumpiness." A ghost writing short story contest ensued. Mary's ghost story, once expanded, was published as "Frankenstein". Mary was just seventeen!

"Love is the greatest restorative power of the universe...[but] love is not a thing we ever attain. It is an ideal we chase, we chase it in our lives and we chase it with our words." Love, in all its forms, could not support an idyllic lifestyle for Mary and Percy. Their lives were filled with devastating loss despite occasional triumphs.

Author Harker Shaw creates a magnificent prose dialogue between two literary masters that reads like biographical fiction viewed through a lens of cyclic hills and valleys. A highly recommended read.

Thank you Colin Mustful at History Through Fiction and Net Galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a wonderfully written book, so beautiful and poignant as well as being engrossing and emotional

I didn’t know all the things that Mary went through in her young years and this really opened my eyes to a favourite author

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book

Absolutely amazing, one of my most favourite reads of 2024 so far, the intimacy and romance that unfolds between the two is so touching and almost makes us feel like we're intruding on them at times.
The overall plot is so thrilling and every page leaves me wanting more! The choice of words from the author at times makes certain chapters on the the one hand either so incredibly captivating, or at other times, makes us hold our breath.
Recommending this to absolutely everyone!