Helga is a retelling of Frankenstein with a teen girl twist.
This book really missed the mark for me. It's fast paced but I was pretty bored throughout the book.

Many of the characters fall flat and just arent interesting.

If you like Frankenstein retellings this is a good book for you!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A fun YA read that may seem entirely lighthearted but has topics such as autonomy and gentrification running throughout the story.

Loved this twist on Frankenstein, modern and curious and blending a coming of age arc with an exploration of what it means to be human! After reading this book, I think boy-crazy corpse girls might be my favourite type of protagonist. Helga brings so much to the page. Her voice is absolutely brilliant and practically leaps off the page. And of course, the book doesn't miss the kind of themes and scrutiny that the original deals with, like the barrelling of capitalism against the natural world, the hubris of humanity, and the questionable ethics around scientific progress. If you're looking for a perfect fall read that is funny and adventurous and curious but also makes you think a little deeper, this one's the one for you!

This quirky YA is Frankenstein, but makes it fantastical and futuristic. Helga is a caricature of a boy crazed teenager, but she’s been given insane strength, musicality, and means to learn rapidly. All of which eventually lead her to grave disaster.

Her father who created her is cold and never around. Helga is a disappointment to him. He wanted essentially an automaton. What he got was a teenage girl. She is too much for a man who should never have become a father in the first place.

I’ve had a hard time thinking about whether this book should be rated 3 or 4 stars. On one hand this book is a very good critique of capitalism and its dystopian elements are interesting. There’s classism, an institute that is richer than everyone else and makes things worse more and more over time for the poor. On the other hand, the book is fantastical almost to its detriment. It’s almost too silly where it almost loses the strengths that make it a great read.

Helga’s boycraziness is a lot. To the point where her existence becomes about finding her soulmate and that’s all there is to her. Yes, there are times she listens to new music and discovers new songs she likes, but for me that’s not enough to solidify her as a fully three dimensional character. Granted she hasn’t been alive long enough to connect to too many things, but I wish she had more self discovery.

In the end I think 3.5 stars is the best rating for this book. It has a lot of great things going for it, but I feel Helga needed a little bit more going for her. Other interests to pursue outside of love. A little more complexity.

Even so, this was a very fun retelling. It was very unique and it brought new ideas to the Frankenstein story. I did enjoy reading it.

if you told me "what's the most fun thing about a gender-bent YA retelling of frankenstein in which the monster is a teenage girl with a crush," i doubt i would have been like, "the world." but it's true! the best part of this book is amaris, an island where uphill is boring and downhill is fun, and everything is fried food and blackberries and night markets. generally i was unprepared for how hungry this book would make me. 
i was also unprepared for how...boring it would be? i don't know how this book managed to have vibrant worldbuilding and genuinely humorous moments and still feel dry, but this never felt easy to pick up. there wasn't much of a plot to speak of, and what did exist moved in fits and starts, with deus ex machina and instalove and character non-development making up for the fact that this book is 99% description.
pros and cons!

Helga shatters the mold of her father's carefully crafted science experiment as soon as she escapes her confining lab and plunges into the vibrant chaos of Amaris City. This exhilarating tale blends science fiction with a splash of romance and a dash of urban adventure, as Helga's curiosity propels her into the heart of a city that pulses with life, danger, and the promise of love. With the city's volatile natural world mirroring her own untamed spirit, Helga navigates everything from bustling night markets to the intricacies of newfound relationships, all while racing against the clock before her father’s return. The book’s lively depiction of city life, combined with an undercurrent of tension from the island's looming threat, keeps readers hooked from start to finish. It’s a delightful mix of escapism and emotional stakes, perfect for fans of speculative fiction with a touch of romance and adventure.

Love a Frankenstein retelling and this was different enough and felt fresh! We all know there’s many Frankenstein retellings of men, but imagining him as a teenage girl who is trying to find herself in the world was really interesting. We can all attest to that feeling of wanting to find yourself, and Helga is a gorgeous main character that you root for!

In this modern take on "Frankenstein," Helga embarks on a journey of discovery and unravels long-hidden secrets that will change her world forever.

Marietta, also known as Helga, was created by her father, The Doctor, to be his obedient lab assistant. However, Helga does not want this; she desires to explore Amaris Island and live as her true self. When her father goes on a business trip, Helga sees an opportunity to break free. During her time on the island, she discovers things she loves, including a boy named Clyde. Eventually, Penelope, also known as Penny, her father's assistant, finds Helga and helps her understand the true meaning of love and respect, showing her that things are not always as they appear.

This book was absolutely captivating, filled with compelling characters and unexpected plot twists. The theme of respect and acceptance was intricately woven into the story, offering a powerful message. Additionally, the book fearlessly delved into the challenging topics of debt and the need for recognition for one's hard work.

Helga emerges as a tenacious character, undergoing significant growth that truly endears her to the reader. Conversely, Helga's father, The Doctor, fails to undergo substantial character development, leaving a feeling of missed opportunity in his portrayal.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a modern take on classic stories, strong character development, and thought-provoking themes. It's a compelling read for those interested in stories of self-discovery, relationships, and the pursuit of true identity.

Happy Reading, Paige ❤️ 📚

Thank you, @tbrbeyondtours & @pagestreetya for sending me a copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Ever wonder what Frankenstein would be like if the doctor’s creation were a teenager? Wonder no more!

Marietta, or as she prefers to be known, Helga, just wants to be loved and accepted for who she is. It's not her fault that she was only born a few days ago. With the help of her father's lab assistant, Penny, she tries to figure out the turbulent life of a teen, boys (girls), friends, and belonging.

Helga is a wonderfully deep character that encompasses all of the existentialism that Adam does in Shelley's Frankenstein and teenage angst one would expect from a coming of age young adult story. My one complaint is that the love interest felt a little like an afterthought with very little build up, but that didn't affect my enjoyment of the book overall.

This was an enthusiastic 4🌟 for me. Catherine Yu breathed new life into an old story and made me love her creation the way it deserves to be loved.

I quite liked this book but do not think it fulfilled the potential of its premise.

Helga herself is such a great character and I loved her confidence and attitude. Having the 'Frankenstein's monster' be a teenage girl was such an inventive twist on an old tale. I just wish we had done more. The most brilliant part of the book to me was Helga trying to create her 'soul mate' and failing before realizing that she was emulating her 'father' in all the wrong ways. I just wish that there were more interactions between Helga and her 'father'. He felt far too flat and was nothing more than a cartoonish mad scientist villain. It seemed fairly obvious from the beginning that he would never learn and grow to be a better father. I feel it would have been more compelling to give him some nuance and make the relationship between him and Helga more complicated. The book was going for themes of toxic parent/child relationships and that you can find others who will love you outside of your family. Except, there was no subtlety to how the themes were presented and Helga's inner monologue would literally hit us over the head with the supposed 'lessons' we should learn. (And she would learn those lessons and then two seconds later would forget she had. I get she's a week old but come on.)

That being said, the highlight of the book was the sisterly bond between Helga and Penny. I am here for representations of women supporting women.

Reviews going live on 8/20 on Goodreads, Storygraph, Fable and my blog. Will include in my Tiktok monthly wrap up at the end of the month.

Helga is one of my new favorite characters! She’s a normal, petulant teenager: she’s overfilled with confidence; she just wants to have a good time; she struggles with meeting her Father’s expectations. Except she was born in a lab, and in place of a brain, she has a “cog”. In this “gender-bent Frankenstein retelling,” Marietta (who will rename herself Helga) is the science experiment brought to life by “the Institute’s” smartest doctor.

Humbleness was probably not a trait programmed for Helga. ("𝙄 𝙨𝙖𝙬 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙜𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙨 𝙙𝙤𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙜𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩. 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙨𝙤 𝙛𝙪𝙘𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙪𝙡.") But all she’s looking for is someone to love her and accept her for who she is. I was rooting for her the entire time, while laughing out loud at her quirkiness and sometimes flawed line of thinking. I love that she didn’t conform to her father’s expectations, and she didn’t accept less than that in love, either.

If you’re looking for a feel-good, fun, quirky tale, this is the perfect read for you. This is YA, and with all the positive, affirming messages this sends, it’s perfect for young readers especially. But it’s an easy read and a great reminder for anyone, really!

I love Frankenstein so I was really excited to read this female led version complete with the teen girl angst element and it pleasantly surprised me how much I ended up enjoying it,

I don’t really know what to think of Helga as a whole.

I didn’t have any issue getting into the story, but I think it was because I was confused while reading and wanted the answers to my confusion.

I didn’t understand the connections Helga made to rebel. It just felt like she did so because she didn’t know anything else, and because she didn’t want to be like her dad, so she did the opposite.

Also her infatuation with Clyde???? The build up to it just didn’t make sense. She just latched on to him like a leech, and he was just the absolute worst. Made borderline racist comments to her face, and never remembered her name.

I just couldn’t figure this book out. At first blamed myself. Since this is a retelling, and I haven’t read Frankenstein in years I thought that’s where I was missing the connection. And after further research… no that’s not what I was missing I think this book was just an overall miss when it came to retelling the story of Frankenstein. Not that it had to be spot on or anything but…

I must admit this was mainly a cover draw for me. I love the cover so much. I'm not sure what it is. It's just the vibe it's giving off. I did decide to sign up for the blog tour for this book. I have to admit I was going to DNF it but I decided to stick it out for the post. Sadly this book was not for me at all. I hated Helga so much. She was a very annoying and immature character to read about. Sure, she was just born and had a lot to learn but Idk she just reminded me more of a tween than a teenager. A lot of the scenes I had a rough time reading. I do have to say there was one romance that kind of got rushed at the end which I wish happened from the start. A lot of the early romance scenes were parts I was annoyed by. I could see the end romance forming but then out of no where it's like let's make this happen. It just didn't flow well for me. Overall this book was just not for me. I really wasn't the right audience for this book at all.

*Thank you so much to Page Street YA & Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for my honest opinion."

3.5

"Father had wired himself a brand-new daughter."

A punk retelling of Poor Things meets Frankenstein (?), Helga is refreshing and colorful. The book is quite fast paced in making the FMC conscious with a major chunk of the book focused on her adventures in the City of Amaris. I really liked the overall world built by the author, even though it was on a small volcanic island. The concept of a bland Uphill and vibrant Downhill was very well executed too. Subliminal worldbuilding details of ravens, blackberries, matching tattoos, Venus flytraps and raven plushies added depth to the plot - THE FOOD ASSOCIATION was GORGEOUS. Though story wise, the book takes a completely different and insane direction, I actually preferred that choice by the author. Nothing in the blurb or the pitch could have prepared me for Clyde.

"That was the main problem with Clyde, anyways— his brain."

The second thing I really liked was how hilarious the book turned out to be. ("Can we add more Romanticism?” I asked her hopefully.")
Paralled with major daddy issues, the book successfully deals with quite heavy topics with a unique dark sense of humor. I liked how the author sprinkled a tiny bit of self love bordering on narcissism for Marietta! Another testament to the writing was the impeccable use of gore and body horror. PURE BLOODY FUN. The middle section of the book became my favourite for its humor and insane chaos. Amidst all this, the friendship that emerges was OUTSTANDING.

Despite thoroughly enjoying the book, there were some potholes that hampered my pleasure. The book transitions from a happening plot to an extremely preachy, boring, reformative story in a matter of seconds. It becomes a jack of many trades, master of none very quickly. For me, this defeated the edge this book initially possessed.
To this end, there is so much that it fails to explain. The Ravens?! The link to current world?!
Additionally, I absolutely hated Anna's arc and the insta-love. There was A LOT OF TIME to let it develop organically, but repetition of Downhill descriptions impeded on that page space.
Further, the decentralisation of cog technology was by far the worst solution Helga came up with, this entire interaction was quite off putting for me as a reader.

Overall, Helga turned out be a mixed bag of surprises for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience through and through, looking forward to more by this author.

I read Frankenstein in college and have been intrigued ever since. Helga does a great job at approaching the maker/parent relationship between Frankenstein and the Creature while giving a gender bent spin to it. We can see the raw emotions of wanting love and approval, of being abandoned and rejected, and how it feels in its most pure and emotional form. All the ways it mirrors parenthood only becomes more apparent with a teenage girl as the main character. When we see the reflections of the rhetoric of expecting obedience from our children, of putting our hopes and dreams on their shoulders, and trying to program them.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my e-ARC of Helga!

𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔
🧟‍♀️ love Frankenstein retellings
🌋 live near a deadly volcano
⚙️ have a cog for a brain
😏 are the rebellious type

• 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓

Helga is not the obedient science experiment her father intended. And though she has only just awoken, he leaves her in the care of his lab assistant Penny to go on a business trip.

Bursting with curiosity, Helga quickly escapes from the well-meaning Penny and heads into Amaris City. There Helga finds she is as untamable as the invasive blackberry vines overtaking the island. And because of the misdeeds of her father’s scientific community, the natural world grows more volatile.

Helga soon discovers the night market, rowdy clubs, delicious food, and cute boys. Enamored with city life, she’ll do anything to find love―but she has only two weeks until her father gets back, and besides there are ominous rumblings from the volcanic island that could put her dating schemes, and even her own life, in grave peril.

• 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒

This was a cute and quick YA read about a teen girl who is created in the fashion of Frankenstein’s monster. Instead of a brain though, she has a Cog, or a computer that helps her take in the world around her at a much faster rate. I loved getting to know Helga and how rebellious she was right from the start. It was nice to see how “human” she really was. This story also plays on a lot of heavy topics - pollution, the discrepancy between the poor and the rich, and more. I enjoyed getting to see them all through Helga’s perspective!

Catherine Yu's novel Helga is a gender bent Frankenstein retelling with a modern, teen girl twist. Helga wakes up and she's buff, she's new, and she's dying to see if there's more to life beyond the Institute and her Father's lab.

Frankenstein retellings are always so fascinating to me; there's so many different routes to take, different ideas and messages to share. Helga shares with us the human desire for connection and meaning, the impact of human pollution on the environment, and the separation of the rich and poor and the way gentrification can destroy the cultures it seeks to "update". While these are great ideas to share with a Frankenstein story, I found that each of these ideas weren't exactly explored evenly. Upon further thought, though, I reminded myself that these ideas are shown to us through a teenage girl's understanding and so it ended up making more sense in that light. I liked Helga's need for companionship, for someone to know her. That's such a human feeling.

The setting of Amaris was so interesting, from the radioactive animals scattered around to the unique differences in life styles between the upper and lower class. I would have loved more of a look at the environmental side of things. I really liked how the humor and body horror seemed to work well together and went hand in hand. It was fun, creative, and I think it handled a teen girl trying to find meaning in her new and sudden life fairly well. There were really only two characters I cared for; Helga and her father's lab assistant, Penny. I felt like most other characters fell rather flat. Perhaps that was the point, though, and it didn't take too much away from the experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The Frankenstein genre is definitely having a moment, especially with the success of Poor Things. This book taps into that trend with a concise and engaging narrative. Helga discovers the purpose behind her creation and encounters a range of characters—both good and bad—that influence her development. Her struggle to rebel against her father and understand her humanity is central to the story. However, I felt the romance at the end was somewhat forced; it seemed abrupt and out of place, as Helga hadn’t shown any prior interest.

I was charmed by Penny, especially the scenes where she and Helga shared marching tattoos—it was a sweet touch. Anna was intriguing, but her character felt inconsistent, changing abruptly at the end for plot convenience. Clyde started off annoying, but given his short lifespan, I can’t be too harsh. The setting was a bit confusing, too—an orange sky and a location that wasn’t quite clear, with elements that felt like a blend of science and magic. Overall, despite these quirks, it was a solid and enjoyable read.

This review was written pretty quickly so it's not as detailed as I would like, might edit one day when I have time(?)

This was a fun take on Frankenstein, and I loved Helga's character and how she grew throughout the book. Her relationship with Penny was also sweet, with Penny helping Helga learn and experience the world around her. Anna also seemed like a nice character who had the potential to be a cute romantic interest to Helga, but it unfortunately turned out feeling a little forced + underdeveloped.

I found the setting of Amaris City with its slightly dystopic environment to be really interesting and would love to explore it more. I just enjoyed reading about the city life, the food, and the contrast between Uphill and Downhill. Something about the near-futuristic aspect of it, I think.
Other things I enjoyed in 'Helga' were the writing, body horror, and the humour. Overall, I found it a fun, quick read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.