Horror Pick: The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein
by Kiersten White
Delacourte Press
2018
287 pages
ISBN: 9780525577942

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein is the perfect book to curl up by the fireplace with. Don't let the lights grow too dim. Don't let the shadows linger too long. This spooky and creepy read will keep you up at night.

Deftly re-imagined by Kiersten White, Mary Shelley's masterpiece has undergone big changes. The main character of this novel is a female who fights to stay alive and stay safe. Although set in the 1800s, Elizabeth Lavenza is as feisty as power female protagonists of today.

Elizabeth is born into poverty. She's sold away by her unloving father to become a playmate of a wealthy family's son. Victor, even as a boy, isn't quite right. There's something wrong. Something that lurks deep inside of him. He's dangerous to himself and others. Victor's a problem child, and unless he can learn to play with others, he'll never become human.

Young Elizabeth knows her place in the household is precarious unless she can make insert herself into Victor's life so deeply that he must have her to survive. She is intelligent beyond her years, but because it is the 1800's, she must use feminine wiles to get what she wants. Feminists may have a problem with this, but it's doubtful whether feminists would read a YA retelling in the first place.

Readers will love the fact that they get to see Victor's own descent into madness.

The setting is atmospheric and imaginative; the story is historically beautiful and gritty. Mary Shelley would be proud to see this version if she were alive today. The cover art is breathtaking with creepy raised lettering sewn together with needle and thread. In fact, I would say this is my favorite YA cover of the year.

Highly, highly recommended for any horror collection. Grade 8 and up.

YA Pick: Not Even Bones

Not Even Bones
by Rebecca Schaeffer
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2018
355 pages
ISBN: 9781328863546

Gruesome, grisly and ghastly but all in the best ways, Not Even Bones lives up to its pitched comparisons "'Dexter' meets 'This Savage Song.'" Schaeffer goes in deep (pun intended) in her descriptions of dissections, body parts, the human meat market, cutting skin off the body, and meat hunters who enjoy eating their products. It's as if Jeffrey Dahmer has been cloned and is in the body parts smuggling business!

Nita has grown up with dead bodies and learned to take them apart, piece by piece. Her mother marvels at her butchery skills, but then  Mom brings home a live boy that she intends to sell off piece by piece. He was being kept by a collector in Buenos Aires, but her mother grabbed him and begins posting his body parts for sale online. Nita is fine with chopping up dead bodies, but she cannot bring herself to cut off the boy's ears or toes, so she sets him free, giving him  a bus ticket and her phone.

Nita knows her mother will be furious. That boy was worth close to $1 million, and her mother doesn't like to lose money. Even worse, her mother's punishments are legendary. Nita is taken away and loses consciousness. She wakes up in a high tech cage beside another prisoner who tells her they are for sale in the worst meat market in the world. Nita always knew her mother could  be cruel, but she had no idea the depths of her evil. Her mother sold her for profit. Nita is an unnatural herself and her parts are worth far more than the boy she set free.

In a world where humans traffic in fresh body parts of unnatural species, kill or be killed is the new norm. Not Even Bones begins the story with Nita fighting for her freedom. When she escapes her cage, she is sure she's beat death, but the surprise twist at the end blows up the entire book setting the stage for book two. Kudos to Rebecca Schaeffer for the BAM! surprise twist that will leave teen readers reeling.

Recommended grade 9 and up. For readers who enjoy gore and blood and are not bothered by grisly details like livers, hearts, cutting off digits or skinning live subjects.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received the book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.