My Frankenstein / Michael J. Lee

Reviewed by: Corina

Genre: Paranormal

Approximate word count: 65-70,000 words

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Author: Michael J. Lee

Michael J. Lee is a script consultant and an entertainment blogger with a wide range of interests. See his blog for additional information.

Description:

Lee gives us a retelling of the classic novel Frankenstein with a feminine protagonist and point-of-view.

Appraisal:

Although Lee has presented this as a romantic retelling of the Frankenstein tale, I found no romance in the story. I am an experienced reader of many romance novels, encompassing historical, contemporary, and futuristic, as well as paranormal and dark romances, as well. There are indeed romantic relationships within the novel, but I would not call this novel “romantic.”

There are a few items that I found it difficult to get past to enjoy the story, and the initial assumption that I would be reading a romance was one of them. The second was that the heroine is supposed to be an avid reader, which is a nice thing in a strong heroine, but she borrows multiple volumes of scientific topics in a night, and somehow plows through them all, bringing the books back the next day, and she understands and remembers all she’s read. The third item was the romantic involvements of the heroine. She came across as flighty, fickle, and promiscuous, which seriously degraded her from heroine status to round-heeled protagonist in my appreciation.

On the last item, there are novels that I’ve read where the heroine has her eye on more than one man, and she might even dally with them all. However, there are good reasons for her attraction to each male, and the sexual content doesn’t detract from her status as heroine. For this novel, the sexual mores of the time were not properly reflected in the heroine’s behavior.

Overall, the underlying structure of the story was sound, but the heroine’s sexuality was not a good addition to it. If this story were retold without sexual content, and without being referred to as “romantic,” I would say it was an interesting reinterpretation of the Frankenstein tale, and a story worth reading. As it is, I would recommend a good proofreader and an editor take a look at it. One more draft of this novel would make for a much more powerful story.

FYI:

There are some sexual scenes with some erotic content. Scenes are of typical sexual interactions, but may nevertheless disturb some readers.

Format/Typo Issues:

There are occasional grammatical errors and a few spelling errors. They were enough to seriously disrupt my own reading experience, but for readers that are not sensitive to grammar and spelling, this may not be an issue.

Rating: *** Three Stars