I’m a little late on this post, purely because I wan’t planning on blogging about each of the books I read this year. But my old fear of not knowing what to blog about has prompted me to just do it. I’m already my third book of the year, which is crazy because I’ve never read more than ten or so books in a single year.
So for my first book of the new year, I read Stefan Petrucha’s The Shadow of Frankenstein (2004), which is more of a continuation of the Boris Karloff movies (Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein) than Mary Shelley’s original novel. The big difference between the two is the monster. The movies portray the monster as the iconic green-skinned, flat-headed giant of a man who pretty much just roars and grunts the entire time he is fleeing persecution. But we know from the book that he is not anything like that. Frankenstein’s monster is supposed to be a quick-learning intellectual being that implores his creator to look at and accept what he has done, and even blackmails him to get his point across.
The book begins where the movies left off, with Henry (yes, Henry and not Victor) and Elizabeth Frankenstein fleeing their own persecution after the destruction of his laboratory with the monster inside. They sail to London, and the monster, who turns out has regenerative powers, follows. At the same time, Jack the Ripper has resurfaced in London, some fifty years after he disappeared, and starts killing hookers again, carefully dissecting their uteri while they are slowly dying from having their neck sliced open. The monster is not the only one who has followed Frankenstein to London, though. Inspector Krogh, whose son had his arm ripped off by the monster, is seeking vengeance and justice, and immediately blames Henry for the dead hookers. From there, it is a battle of wits and blackmail between Jack, Henry, Krogh, and the monster.
I was a little disappointed at first because Petrucha uses more from the movies than from the book. I’ve never understood why they made the monster green, dumb, and flat-headed, when the original monster was a much better idea. But I quickly got over my disappointment because Petrucha writes really well, and he has created a very interesting and unique story with characters we know well and love to read about. The Ripper’s purpose in this book, which I can’t state here because it will give too much away, is a wonderful idea and meshes masterfully with Henry’s original desires and the monster’s motives. From the moment I got over my disappointment, I found myself unable to put the book down and was captivated until the very end.
I give The Shadow of Frankenstein 4 out of 5 stars.
The next book on my list, Across the River and Into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway, will be coming soon.
Matthew S. Schultz 