Summer of Monsters

by Tony Thompson

Scandal. Passion. Desire.
Mary Shelley felt she’d never escape the shadow of her famous parents. Overlooked and unwanted, no one predicted it would be sixteen-year-old Mary herself who would scandalise a nation. Against acceptable behaviour for young women at the time,
Mary’s choices have gone down in history. And they would be inspiration for her novel Frankenstein, one of the most iconic books of our time.
It was indeed a Summer of Monsters.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult

368 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2014

About the author

Tony Thompson is a Canadian writer based in Katoomba, Australia.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summer of Monsters is an enjoyable book that sits somewhere between historical fiction and social history. Add a big slice of literary history served by a witty guide and it adds to a rollicking but smart read. It's not a big surprise that the author taught English literature - he's assured in the handling of period and ideas.

Mary Shelley and her half-sister Claire scandalised England and parts of Europe by leaving London to live - unmarried - with the poet Percy Shelley. With the arrival of Lord Byron - a kind of 19th century Nick Cave - they utterly rejected the Victorian (albeit Georgian) values. And yet at 19 years of age, knocked up with Percy's child, penniless and far, far from home, Mary Shelley writes one of the most important and enduring books in English.

Like Frankenstein's monster itself, Summer of Monsters is very much more than the sum of its parts: it entertains, informs and most of all wears its learning lightly. I recommend.

[Pamela Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting and atmospheric

A fresh look at the famous summer during which Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. Beautifully written and thoroughly researched, Summer of Monsters gives an insightful and suspenseful account of Mary Shelley's early life. May be the best portrait of Byron and percy Bysshe Shelley ever. Highly recommended

[Rhondda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting way to blend history and fiction.
You don't have to know about Frankenstein author, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and her extraordinary life to enjoy the book. It effortlessly wove the known historical facts with a story about how they might have played out for the characters.
Mary's mother, infamous in her time, was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft who died not long after she was born. Mary was raised by her father and well-known political philosopher William Godwin and had a somewhat unusual upbring.
A good book to whet your appetite to learn more about the main characters and to revisit Frankenstein (or read it if you haven't)
She was still quite young when she began a romance with one of her father's political followers, the romantic poet and philoshopher (and at the time married) Percy Bysshe Shelley.
This book is mainly concerned with her chilhood and the romantic summer she spent in 1816, that they spent with Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and step sister, Claire Clairmont, near Geneva, Switzerland. This is where Mary conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein.

[Adele Broadbent · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't know much about Mary Shelley, her infamous mother or the poets Percy Shelley and Lord Byron before picking up this book. I enjoyed the mix of historical fiction and history but did wonder how much was creative license....?
I did enjoy the characters and their complete scorn of English society. They were completely scandalous which was fun to read - especially the ridiculous events. eg. They were to be evicted from the hotel because Mary went barefoot on the beach when walking with Lord Byron - overlooking the fact he'd threatened and beaten a clergyman.
What was interesting was the epilogue with more interesting facts about Frankenstein and the origins of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
There were some flat spots, but I'm still glad I read it.

[Jill Dempsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. History, poetry, suspense, and amazing twists melded and sang for that annoying book you can't put down. But the urgent will be there tomorrow.
I felt it had the strong and beautiful writing that belongs to a classic... However I can't read Harry Potter which they say is. DO not judge me there, I did try.
Please enrich your day, find that courage to seek and deal with your own monsters.

[Kirsti · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story itself was marvelous; seriously, that night stands in history as a time when great literary minds came together and discussed and read aloud work that would be cemented in history forever. So why did I only rate it three stars? Because I thought the writing was terrible, that's why! I kept getting thrown out of the story by the utter simplicity of the sentences. 'They did this. Mary thought that'. Drove me nuts!

Still, I followed through and read the whole thing in two or three hours, so it couldn't have been that bad. There were sparks at times, and not all the writing unbearable. The characterization was good, and I really got a feel for what these people may have been like. I would have liked a little more imagination about the romance of Percy and Mary, but it will have to do, I suppose. Somewhere around three and four stars, but I've had better four star books recently so three it is.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable re-telling of the famous story of Mary Shelley and how she came to write the first science fiction novel and a classic of the horror genre. It recounts the famous summer on Lake Geneva when Byron, Shelley, Polidori, Mary and Claire Clairmont told each other ghost stories to pass the time. Not a great book but a good introduction to the story of Mary Shelley for ya readers, although not entirely accurate. The second half of the novel moved with greater pace than the first and while some of the back story is glib and superficial it is nevertheless readable and entertaining.

[Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure how I feel about this novel. It's fascinating subject matter, but the YA treatment makes it feel quite dull. Ironically, I don't imagine teen readers would find it that compelling either, but I'm not a YA, so I could be wrong.

I saw the author give a talk about the Romantics and he was very engaging then. I think I was hoping for something a bit more meaty. However, Mary's life is so fascinating, this is worth reading. Then read Frankenstein immediately afterwards and you'll be amazed by her!

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Summer of Monsters was really hard to engage in; at first I was thinking about if I really wanted to read it but I can't put a book down once I've started so I kept reading it, and it wasn't until i finished the book that I thought it was really interesting. Mary Shelley obviously had an adventurous life and because of her experience with the world she wrote the book Frankenstein. I liked looking back at it and seeing her achievements throughout her life and how they helped her create something that is still so famous hundreds of years later.

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even if I had to read this book for work purposes, I enjoyed it a lot. Normally, I avoid the YA literature for the simplicity of the writing, but this novel is an example of a simple language and good historical fiction being enjoyable and informative. The life of Mary Shelley and the story of her rebellious youth is fascinating and explains how she was up to write the Frankenstine at such young age. I have to check other books by Tony Thompson.

[Sam Colloff · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so disappointed with this, it seems like such a fascinating story could have written about this woman and the events surrounding and inspiring her. only it wasn't. not in this volume anyway. this read in a very basic manner, more what I would expect from a novel aimed at the tween/young teen reader, although definitely not the subject matter.

[Susanne Clower · Rating 2 out of 5]

The simple language and straight-forward delivery of information reminded me of books aimed at upper-primary, but the adult content would seem to dictate a teenage audience? This was too discombobulated for me to enjoy.

[Abbey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting look at Mary Shelley's life up until the night she wrote Frankenstein in comeptition with Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and John Polidori beside the Swiss lake.