Day 57: 'The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein'

If you like: Frankenstein, horror, feminist retellings, Deborah Harkness, Sabaa Tahir

2018 is the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

In The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, Kiersten White retells the classic story from the perspective of Elizabeth Lavenza, most commonly known as Victor Frankenstein’s fiancée.

It is. So good. While The Dark Descent is entertaining all by itself, what really made me geek out about the story was reading Frankenstein prior. Knowing how Elizabeth was treated as property in the original, as something to measure Victor’s characteristics against, makes White’s perspective of her side of the story feel fresh and needed.

Elizabeth Lavenza is amazing. She spent the first five years of her life surviving in terrible conditions. Because of that, she has learned how to be cunning and manipulative to ensure her spot in the safety of the Frankensteins. Life was not that great for women back in the 1700’s, but I love how Elizabeth uses what little leverage she has to be the heroine of her own story. Her beauty is a mask and a weapon, her relationship with Victor is a safety net, and her education is a way to get her from one place to another. Elizabeth turns herself into a multipurpose tool for others to use: until the end, it’s never about what she wants, but her need survive in a cruel world.

And the world really is cruel. White has perfectly created a backdrop of Europe in the 1700’s, full of grime, refuse, and dark corners. Victor Frankenstein mirrors that perfectly. He’s moody, apathetic, and something that Elizabeth has to carefully navigate like the creepy nighttime streets of Ingolstadt. Elizabeth’s relationship with Victor is fascinatingly twisted, one of mutual benefaction.

Until it isn’t. Dun Dun DUUNNNN!

In the style of Frankenstein, The Dark Descent is gruesome and disturbing. White pulls no punches with the tragedy of the story. Elizabeth has a tangle of hopes that get trampled, again and again. But, for her, “It was easier to rage than despair,” and I loved watching her rage.

There’s still plenty of surprises in The Dark Descent, but it holds true to the original story. This is a perfect, stormy book for fall reading, especially if you’ve read Frankenstein. Classic characters are all back, and each have a new perspective to add.

Most of all, I love that while Victor was creating his monsters in The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, it turns out that Elizabeth was creating and harboring a monster of her own.

"The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein" by Kiersten White; Delacorte Press; Sept. 25, 2018.