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The Monster’s Wife
A startling new sequel to Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein. Told from the perspective of the girl Victor Frankenstein transformed into a Bride for his monster.
To a tiny island in the Scottish Orkneys, peopled by a devout community of twenty, comes Victor Frankenstein, driven there by a Devil's bargain: to make a wife for the Creature who is stalking him across Europe. In this darkly-wrought answer to Frankenstein, we hear the untold tale of the monster's wife through the perspective of the doctor's housemaid. Oona works below stairs with her best friend May, washing the doctor's linens and keeping the fires lit at the Big House. An orphan whose only legacy is the illness that killed her mother, Oona knows she is doomed. But she is also thirsty for knowledge, determined to know life fully before it slips away. As tensions heighten between Victor and the islanders, Oona becomes the doctor's trusted accomplice, aiding in secret experiments and seeing horrors she sometimes wishes to forget. When May disappears, Oona must face up to growing suspicions about the enigmatic employer to whom she has grown close - but the truth is darker than anything she could imagine.
A literary gothic, in the tradition of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea and Valerie Martin’s Mary Reilly.
To a tiny island in the Scottish Orkneys, peopled by a devout community of twenty, comes Victor Frankenstein, driven there by a Devil's bargain: to make a wife for the Creature who is stalking him across Europe. In this darkly-wrought answer to Frankenstein, we hear the untold tale of the monster's wife through the perspective of the doctor's housemaid. Oona works below stairs with her best friend May, washing the doctor's linens and keeping the fires lit at the Big House. An orphan whose only legacy is the illness that killed her mother, Oona knows she is doomed. But she is also thirsty for knowledge, determined to know life fully before it slips away. As tensions heighten between Victor and the islanders, Oona becomes the doctor's trusted accomplice, aiding in secret experiments and seeing horrors she sometimes wishes to forget. When May disappears, Oona must face up to growing suspicions about the enigmatic employer to whom she has grown close - but the truth is darker than anything she could imagine.
A literary gothic, in the tradition of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea and Valerie Martin’s Mary Reilly.
258 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 22, 2014
About the author
Kate Horsley
9 books68 followersI'm a writer living in Manchester with my artist husband, John, a small person called Violet and a ghost called Ron.
The Monster’s Wife , my first novel, was a rewriting of Frankenstein told from the perspective of the girl Victor Frankenstein transformed into a Bride for his monster. I wrote most of the novel on the tiny island in the Scottish Orkneys on which it's set and it was shortlisted for the Scottish First Book of the Year Award.
My second novel, The American Girl , tells the story of and American exchange student who stumbles out of the woods near the small French town of St. Roch, barefoot, bloodied, and unable to say what has happened to her. I also wrote this partly on the hoof, in the various locations in the South of France mentioned in the book.
Before I became a writer, I had a lot of jobs, from babysitter and box-assembler to librarian and teacher. I teach photography with my husband and travel as often as possible, often wearing an elaborate disguise.
The Monster’s Wife , my first novel, was a rewriting of Frankenstein told from the perspective of the girl Victor Frankenstein transformed into a Bride for his monster. I wrote most of the novel on the tiny island in the Scottish Orkneys on which it's set and it was shortlisted for the Scottish First Book of the Year Award.
My second novel, The American Girl , tells the story of and American exchange student who stumbles out of the woods near the small French town of St. Roch, barefoot, bloodied, and unable to say what has happened to her. I also wrote this partly on the hoof, in the various locations in the South of France mentioned in the book.
Before I became a writer, I had a lot of jobs, from babysitter and box-assembler to librarian and teacher. I teach photography with my husband and travel as often as possible, often wearing an elaborate disguise.
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July 23, 2014
www.shelfnotes.com review
Dear Reader,
Before I go into how interesting and unique this book is, I'd like to point out how interesting and unique the Author's bio is. Here is the first part:
Born into a family of eccentrics, I was raised in a haunted house on the outskirts of London. The daughter of a mad scientist and a crime fiction expert, I developed an early obsession with laboratories and monsters. At the age of 4, I wrote and illustrated my first collection of gothic tales, 'Fenella the Witch Fights the Hairy Sea Lion Giant', but struggled to find a publisher.
As you can see, she sounds amazing, right? Even before I started reading the book, I knew I would like her writing (our interests seemed to lie in the same realm of quirks). Kate Horsley, will you be my friend?
With that out of the way, the book didn't disappoint me... which is kind of surprising since the premise and the Author gave me high expectations. First thing to know is, DON'T READ THE DESCRIPTION OF THE BOOK ON GOODREADS, it gives things away that i refuse to talk about in this review (although I'm itching to). The story is written in that "old fashioned" way, very reflective on the original "Frankenstein" novel. You can tell Kate Horsley loves this stuff and wants to honor the original work. The Monster's Wife is almost like a refurbished piece of furniture, keeping that old school charm of the piece but creating a different feel to it, maybe something more comfortable or practical. She takes Victor Frankenstein and places him on a remote island in Scotland, running away from his creation (his original Monster). Victor thinks he has given space between him and his family to keep them safe and hoped the "Monster" would leave them alone.
The other characters of this novel are Oona and May, two local girls who are considered best friends. Oona is still that gangly, homely girl who doesn't have an interest in growing up or boys. While May is the girl who is blossoming and she is actively working on a romance with a boy on the island. May ends up working for Victor Frankenstein as a maid and Oona eventually follows her over and is given her own "job". The first half of the book is solid character development and hardly any action happens. I wasn't opposed to the way the Author handled that though, I love getting connected to the characters before the big bang happens. Without giving away anything, I'd also like to point out how IMPORTANT it is to feel something for both of the girls before you come to the ending, very important. I loved the way the Author has given us this look into Scottish Island life, the words, accents and closeness of everyone. I found the slang to be charming, even though I had to stop and look things up all the time. It felt like a magical world, but I had to keep reminding myself that the island isn't the fantasy part of the book.
Since I don't want to give much away, I do want to let all those scaredy cats out there that this is nothing to worry about. Arianna, this means you! This book has nothing that would make you cringe, jump or even give you insomnia. The idea of a man creating a "monster" with science isn't a new concept and yes, it's a little creepy... maybe more than a little BUT there is nothing super gross or spooky about this. I would describe the "horror" to be more of a thoughtful kind, disturbing to think of as a concept but nothing will pull you under the bed at night. I would recommend this to anyone who loves "Frankenstein" or novels about small communities with a different way of life. I would even go so far and say this has a historical fiction quality about it, but instead of history... the Author pulls from literary history. This will be a favorite of mine and I'll continue to follow Kate Horsley in her literary career like a good cheerleader. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do... since you'll be picking this up when it comes out and reading it, yep.
Happy Reading,
AmberBug
Dear Reader,
Before I go into how interesting and unique this book is, I'd like to point out how interesting and unique the Author's bio is. Here is the first part:
Born into a family of eccentrics, I was raised in a haunted house on the outskirts of London. The daughter of a mad scientist and a crime fiction expert, I developed an early obsession with laboratories and monsters. At the age of 4, I wrote and illustrated my first collection of gothic tales, 'Fenella the Witch Fights the Hairy Sea Lion Giant', but struggled to find a publisher.
As you can see, she sounds amazing, right? Even before I started reading the book, I knew I would like her writing (our interests seemed to lie in the same realm of quirks). Kate Horsley, will you be my friend?
With that out of the way, the book didn't disappoint me... which is kind of surprising since the premise and the Author gave me high expectations. First thing to know is, DON'T READ THE DESCRIPTION OF THE BOOK ON GOODREADS, it gives things away that i refuse to talk about in this review (although I'm itching to). The story is written in that "old fashioned" way, very reflective on the original "Frankenstein" novel. You can tell Kate Horsley loves this stuff and wants to honor the original work. The Monster's Wife is almost like a refurbished piece of furniture, keeping that old school charm of the piece but creating a different feel to it, maybe something more comfortable or practical. She takes Victor Frankenstein and places him on a remote island in Scotland, running away from his creation (his original Monster). Victor thinks he has given space between him and his family to keep them safe and hoped the "Monster" would leave them alone.
The other characters of this novel are Oona and May, two local girls who are considered best friends. Oona is still that gangly, homely girl who doesn't have an interest in growing up or boys. While May is the girl who is blossoming and she is actively working on a romance with a boy on the island. May ends up working for Victor Frankenstein as a maid and Oona eventually follows her over and is given her own "job". The first half of the book is solid character development and hardly any action happens. I wasn't opposed to the way the Author handled that though, I love getting connected to the characters before the big bang happens. Without giving away anything, I'd also like to point out how IMPORTANT it is to feel something for both of the girls before you come to the ending, very important. I loved the way the Author has given us this look into Scottish Island life, the words, accents and closeness of everyone. I found the slang to be charming, even though I had to stop and look things up all the time. It felt like a magical world, but I had to keep reminding myself that the island isn't the fantasy part of the book.
Since I don't want to give much away, I do want to let all those scaredy cats out there that this is nothing to worry about. Arianna, this means you! This book has nothing that would make you cringe, jump or even give you insomnia. The idea of a man creating a "monster" with science isn't a new concept and yes, it's a little creepy... maybe more than a little BUT there is nothing super gross or spooky about this. I would describe the "horror" to be more of a thoughtful kind, disturbing to think of as a concept but nothing will pull you under the bed at night. I would recommend this to anyone who loves "Frankenstein" or novels about small communities with a different way of life. I would even go so far and say this has a historical fiction quality about it, but instead of history... the Author pulls from literary history. This will be a favorite of mine and I'll continue to follow Kate Horsley in her literary career like a good cheerleader. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do... since you'll be picking this up when it comes out and reading it, yep.
Happy Reading,
AmberBug
October 31, 2021
Firstly, I should say that I have been influenced by having read Frankenstein for the first time immediately before reading this, and I don't have the same level of pop cultural references that most people have because I don't engage with horror stuff particularly unless forced to.
I didn't enjoy this. It gets 2 stars because I cared enough to read it to the end to see what actually happened, but I didn't like myself for it.
This didn't sit well alongside the original for me, I didn't feel like the Monster or Frankenstein portrayed in this particularly captured the essence of the classic, either details-wise or whole feel-wise. I will also say here, that I kept trying to explain it away to get through the book, and if people can overlook this then I'm sure the enjoyment factor is a lot higher, but for me it jolted me out a lot and I struggled to get back into it in any meaningful way.
The doctor, in the original, felt largely asexual, and gave me autistic hyperfixated vibes [eta: i say this as an autistic person!] and struggled with periods of depression so deep that he had to be nursed back to health for months on end. In this however, he was a sex-fuelled mad scientist who seemed to be enjoying his task, rather than conducting it as a result of blackmail. I understand that this is a reimagining and that you're allowed to take this from the silences in the original, but again, it didn't sit well so freshly afterwards. I tried to tell myself that this could be true because in fairness, the original is all storytelling within storytelling, so of course Frankenstein wouldn't portray this seedy, lech-y, rapey, psychopathic angle to another person?
Then there were the changes of the plot, the original (and I know I'm focusing way too much on this!) said that the wife was destroyed and then the doc and his creation chased after each other over tundra until the doc died, but here that didn't happen and I couldn't then use any justification for it.
So then it just read like fanfic for me.
The editing was reallllllly lacking which also added to this general vibe. Typos, grammatical errors, and contextual errors (I'm not saying I'm perfect by any stretch of the imagination, to be clear, but even my non-linguistic brain spotted them). One such occurrence that really upset me was when Andrew passed out drunk on top of Oona, and it said that she felt a warm liquid ooze over her stomach - so semen or pee right? And then it's not mentioned again. So she's just walking around chatting to people with semen or pee all over her and not trying to cover it up or get dry?? As we get towards the end we had so many falling unconscious spells and her waking up to the monster standing over her ready to share some plot carrying development, falling unconscious ...and this time it's the doctor standing over her with a confession, unconscious again and she's got the villagers dealing with her, it made me feel dizzy and confused and felt like lazy plot tidying.
And finally, there were details which felt just incorrect, and therefore not respectful to the original.
The process of making the original monster was described vaguely but led us to believe that Frankenstein was creating something from scratch rather than the media portrayal of patchwork flesh, and in this telling, he was raising someone from the dead instead of either of these things? Maybe this was the new technique he had to consult the experts about, who knows.
The monster only speaks French but in this he speaks not only English and German but has managed to pick up some Scots dialect too! Fancy that.
In the original book, the monster eats mainly roots and berries but in this one he is confused about Oona eating roots because he didn't know what they were, and explicitly says that he can only survive on red meat.
So yes, the issue is probably me and my attachment to the original, and a spot of shocking editing, but the blurbs all said it honoured the original, or that it began where the other left off, or that it was truly a work of art in its own right - too grand a building up for me I think!
I didn't enjoy this. It gets 2 stars because I cared enough to read it to the end to see what actually happened, but I didn't like myself for it.
This didn't sit well alongside the original for me, I didn't feel like the Monster or Frankenstein portrayed in this particularly captured the essence of the classic, either details-wise or whole feel-wise. I will also say here, that I kept trying to explain it away to get through the book, and if people can overlook this then I'm sure the enjoyment factor is a lot higher, but for me it jolted me out a lot and I struggled to get back into it in any meaningful way.
The doctor, in the original, felt largely asexual, and gave me autistic hyperfixated vibes [eta: i say this as an autistic person!] and struggled with periods of depression so deep that he had to be nursed back to health for months on end. In this however, he was a sex-fuelled mad scientist who seemed to be enjoying his task, rather than conducting it as a result of blackmail. I understand that this is a reimagining and that you're allowed to take this from the silences in the original, but again, it didn't sit well so freshly afterwards. I tried to tell myself that this could be true because in fairness, the original is all storytelling within storytelling, so of course Frankenstein wouldn't portray this seedy, lech-y, rapey, psychopathic angle to another person?
Then there were the changes of the plot, the original (and I know I'm focusing way too much on this!) said that the wife was destroyed and then the doc and his creation chased after each other over tundra until the doc died, but here that didn't happen and I couldn't then use any justification for it.
So then it just read like fanfic for me.
The editing was reallllllly lacking which also added to this general vibe. Typos, grammatical errors, and contextual errors (I'm not saying I'm perfect by any stretch of the imagination, to be clear, but even my non-linguistic brain spotted them). One such occurrence that really upset me was when Andrew passed out drunk on top of Oona, and it said that she felt a warm liquid ooze over her stomach - so semen or pee right? And then it's not mentioned again. So she's just walking around chatting to people with semen or pee all over her and not trying to cover it up or get dry?? As we get towards the end we had so many falling unconscious spells and her waking up to the monster standing over her ready to share some plot carrying development, falling unconscious ...and this time it's the doctor standing over her with a confession, unconscious again and she's got the villagers dealing with her, it made me feel dizzy and confused and felt like lazy plot tidying.
And finally, there were details which felt just incorrect, and therefore not respectful to the original.
The process of making the original monster was described vaguely but led us to believe that Frankenstein was creating something from scratch rather than the media portrayal of patchwork flesh, and in this telling, he was raising someone from the dead instead of either of these things? Maybe this was the new technique he had to consult the experts about, who knows.
The monster only speaks French but in this he speaks not only English and German but has managed to pick up some Scots dialect too! Fancy that.
In the original book, the monster eats mainly roots and berries but in this one he is confused about Oona eating roots because he didn't know what they were, and explicitly says that he can only survive on red meat.
So yes, the issue is probably me and my attachment to the original, and a spot of shocking editing, but the blurbs all said it honoured the original, or that it began where the other left off, or that it was truly a work of art in its own right - too grand a building up for me I think!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 9, 2014
ARC received from NetGalley
Kate Horsley's love and respect for her source material hums through every page. When I first read Frankenstein in high school, I was struck by how sad and morally ambiguous it is. This maintains that while adding a fresh, new perspective of how victims are created, treated, and how they fight back. The prose is chillingly beautiful, and I enjoyed how devoted Horsley is to maintaining the time's language and atmosphere of the setting. In the hands of such a skilled writer, context clues are a delight to use! I look forward to reading more from this author.
Kate Horsley's love and respect for her source material hums through every page. When I first read Frankenstein in high school, I was struck by how sad and morally ambiguous it is. This maintains that while adding a fresh, new perspective of how victims are created, treated, and how they fight back. The prose is chillingly beautiful, and I enjoyed how devoted Horsley is to maintaining the time's language and atmosphere of the setting. In the hands of such a skilled writer, context clues are a delight to use! I look forward to reading more from this author.
October 10, 2014
Kate Horsley is clearly a brave lady. She’s taken on a master work and written a sequel. In doing so, she’s produced a novel of class and beauty that’s worthy of its recent nomination as Scottish Book Of The Year in the Saltire Literary Awards.
Imagine, if you will, a small Scottish island at around the turn of the Nineteenth Century. It has a tiny population who are bound to the land and the sea for everything. Along comes the strange visitor from Europe and everything starts to change.
“Who’d have thought in our modern day, to see the plagues of Egypt washed up onto our shores?”
Who indeed?
Nature seems restless. Strange things have been washed up on the beach. Dolphins lay dead and smiling on the rocks. Livestock around the island is found ripped apart. Napoleon’s ships are moored nearby. It seems that God is angry and the people of Hoy gather in the church to pray and to swap tales.
It’s not long before folk turn their attention to the mysterious Victor Frankenstein, who is living and working up at the big house, and to May and Oona who are working there for him.
Oona is our guide and she’s a fabulously complex character. She has a rare strength and determination about her and yet has a physical frailty that softens and yet heightens these traits. She shows a tremendous loyalty to her best friend, May, who is about to leave her to marry a twin from the village. It’s this loyalty to May that initially draws Oona in to the life of Frankenstein. It’s a mysterious world that she enters and the complex layers are peeled slowly and tantalisingly away as we get to discover this new world through Oona’s eyes.
The world of the big house is a stark contrast to the superstitious, God-fearing community who talk of the bible, the selkies and the Finman. It’s a practical, scientific place full of caged birds, home-made contraptions and experiments aimed at discovering something of the nature of death and exploring the possibilities of resurrection.
It’s a stroke of genius to tell the story from Oona’s perspective. It works to the book’s advantage at every turn.
What is so stunning about the book for me is the use of language. The work flows from one gem of a sentence to another. The dialogue captures something of a sense of period, is clean and never stilted in the way that some attempts at historical fiction can be. The shadows and sense of darkness are embedded into the work with great subtlety and the images are often so perfectly honed that they really can take the breath away.
The characters, and I’ll include the island of Hoy here, are wonderful. Their differences are exploited superbly when things start to go wrong and the status quo cracks like dry bones.
On top of all that, the novel is incredibly gripping. The tension builds and the sense of the sinister grows in the way of any great page-turner.
I found The Monster’s Wife to be a terrific read. It’s a stunning work and I hope you’ll take the time to check it out.
If you happen to be in a book group, I’d suggest you make this your next recommendation. You’ll get so many hours of discussion and so many pats on the back from the other members for the idea that you really won’t regret it.
A classic in the making.
Imagine, if you will, a small Scottish island at around the turn of the Nineteenth Century. It has a tiny population who are bound to the land and the sea for everything. Along comes the strange visitor from Europe and everything starts to change.
“Who’d have thought in our modern day, to see the plagues of Egypt washed up onto our shores?”
Who indeed?
Nature seems restless. Strange things have been washed up on the beach. Dolphins lay dead and smiling on the rocks. Livestock around the island is found ripped apart. Napoleon’s ships are moored nearby. It seems that God is angry and the people of Hoy gather in the church to pray and to swap tales.
It’s not long before folk turn their attention to the mysterious Victor Frankenstein, who is living and working up at the big house, and to May and Oona who are working there for him.
Oona is our guide and she’s a fabulously complex character. She has a rare strength and determination about her and yet has a physical frailty that softens and yet heightens these traits. She shows a tremendous loyalty to her best friend, May, who is about to leave her to marry a twin from the village. It’s this loyalty to May that initially draws Oona in to the life of Frankenstein. It’s a mysterious world that she enters and the complex layers are peeled slowly and tantalisingly away as we get to discover this new world through Oona’s eyes.
The world of the big house is a stark contrast to the superstitious, God-fearing community who talk of the bible, the selkies and the Finman. It’s a practical, scientific place full of caged birds, home-made contraptions and experiments aimed at discovering something of the nature of death and exploring the possibilities of resurrection.
It’s a stroke of genius to tell the story from Oona’s perspective. It works to the book’s advantage at every turn.
What is so stunning about the book for me is the use of language. The work flows from one gem of a sentence to another. The dialogue captures something of a sense of period, is clean and never stilted in the way that some attempts at historical fiction can be. The shadows and sense of darkness are embedded into the work with great subtlety and the images are often so perfectly honed that they really can take the breath away.
The characters, and I’ll include the island of Hoy here, are wonderful. Their differences are exploited superbly when things start to go wrong and the status quo cracks like dry bones.
On top of all that, the novel is incredibly gripping. The tension builds and the sense of the sinister grows in the way of any great page-turner.
I found The Monster’s Wife to be a terrific read. It’s a stunning work and I hope you’ll take the time to check it out.
If you happen to be in a book group, I’d suggest you make this your next recommendation. You’ll get so many hours of discussion and so many pats on the back from the other members for the idea that you really won’t regret it.
A classic in the making.
August 18, 2014
I love rewritings so was excited about this and it did not fail to deliver. Oona, the central protagonist of the story, is such a wonderful character to follow: unapologetically real, smoking and drinking and lust filled, brilliantly wise, an old soul with as many flaws as good points. She is the perfect character to follow as the newcomer to the island, Victor Frankenstein, causes havoc.
The setting is equally well drawn: 'the morning was a dark beast sleeping- one hip raised to nudge the sky', the isolation and close knit intensity of living in a place where everyone knows everything drawing together into the stories finale.
I loved the dialogue, the curt curl of the Orkney slang, the Dr's elaborate Germanic phrasing. The language of description is infected the same, oddness threading through all the descriptions. Its a story about monsters being in places you did not immediately expect them to be, but also about love in different guises and not fitting in and the lure of freedom.
It will be in Blackwell's Bookshop Oxford in the next couple of weeks!!
The setting is equally well drawn: 'the morning was a dark beast sleeping- one hip raised to nudge the sky', the isolation and close knit intensity of living in a place where everyone knows everything drawing together into the stories finale.
I loved the dialogue, the curt curl of the Orkney slang, the Dr's elaborate Germanic phrasing. The language of description is infected the same, oddness threading through all the descriptions. Its a story about monsters being in places you did not immediately expect them to be, but also about love in different guises and not fitting in and the lure of freedom.
It will be in Blackwell's Bookshop Oxford in the next couple of weeks!!
October 24, 2014
'She would be pure, every scrap of impiety gone, no longer a monster but a girl made from glass, a prism catching the scant rays of the evening sun.'
The name Frankenstein conjures up an image of the booted and bolted celluloid monster with its drunken gait and toddler-like curiosity. Mute and massive he's an unpredictable tour de force destined to bring about the end of civilization. The monster's star has, of course, out-shone that of his maker, the real Frankenstein, thanks to James Whale's widely-lauded cinematic offerings Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. But Whale's artistic license gave his monster a dumb, almost-comical presence, a far cry from Shelley's fearful, intelligent creature able to negotiate and manipulate to get his own way.
And what of his electric-haired bride, beautiful and doomed to be on the cover of many horror anthologies to come? In Shelley's novel she was hacked to pieces by her maker before being given that final spark of life. The author gave the creature a voice but gave his bride nothing. It is only now that she is given her own story, in the pages of Horsley's decadent, historical novel The Monster's Wife.
When Shelley wrote Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, she took the doctor to the Orkneys, a set of islands off the north coast of Scotland. Here he could be left, uninterrupted, to seek out the unformed clay with which to make his bride. And it is here that The Monster's Wife is set, on the island of Hoy, where that clay once took the form of a girl, a woman, as strong and fearless as any man.
'Though Oona was as used to dressing game as the next girl, the sight of the doe's guts pinned out across the board made her wince.'
This is not a sequel. Neither is it a story of a life before the doctor and his creature. Rather, it is a narrative that runs alongside the original, taking what is almost an after-thought and giving it a conscience. It is a story about friendship, courage and identity in a hostile climate. These are an uneducated people adept at deboning fish and slaughtering animals but ignorant of life beyond the island. Reliant on the sea for their livelihood, they live both in fear and in awe of her power. There are hints in fireside tales of what lies beneath, and sometimes the horrors that dwell in the darkness are brought forth to the beaches to litter the rocks.
'Course grass swathed the roof and huddled in clumps around the doorway. The midden spreading out in front of the shack was strewn with starfish and the clenched lips of razor clams. A grey cat rootling in the muck dug out a fish head and started licking it.'
But the sea is more than a malevolent deity and its tempestuous nature is shared with the novel's heroine, Oona, and her close friend May. The bond they share arouses suspicion among the locals, who fear a witchy threat to their manly prowess. A woman should be attentive and loyal to her man, so these two wild, wilful women who do as they please are perfect fodder for the rumour-mongers. Not least when Dr Frankenstein appears and their lives become inextricably entwined with his.
'The night he landed, a storm rose and blew boats towards the Northern ice floes… new lambs were stolen and hens found with their throats torn out. Kirk-going women left their cooking and ran wild, reeling home soused to take the distaff to their husbands' heads.'
His foreignness, his prestige and charm draw the girls in to his world. Here is a mystery to be solved. There is fear, but there is also intrigue. Desire stirs, blood flows hot and there is a crackle of electricity in the air. It is a warm comfort compared to the sparse, cold life on the island, which Horsley describes wonderfully.
'Most there had risen in darkness to break the ice-lid on the ewer's cold bone, to dress in stiff clothes unpacked from chests stuffed with camphor and lavender. They had settled old bones, sick bones, fidgety children on hard pews full of the night's damps. And now the bride was late.'
As the plot unfolds we get an insight into island life. Horsley travelled to Hoy whilst researching the book and clearly brought back a wealth of knowledge and sentiment. It is a brave move to write a historical novel, though easier, I expect, if much of the land has remained unchanged for years. The topography and landscape are significant, pushing the novel along through the twists and turns of a rugged terrain, and there is a twang to her characters' diction, while her use of words such as pandybats, bannocks, laird and sadiron give the novel an authentic feel.
'Oona fancied that the three long days and nights Jonah spent in the belly of the whale were neither as dark nor as foul as her week had been.'
It is easy to see why, not long after its publication, The Monster's Wife was nominated for the Saltire Scottish First Book of The Year Award. For all its historic and geographic authenticity, Horsley's novel is a nod to neo romanticism. Here is an author who loves the cadence of the English language...
'The words were still there, buried under layers, pushing pale and waxy horns of raw growth towards the light.'
...and the result is a moving tale with touches of beautifully-described horror nestled in the historical back-drop of a questionably malevolent island.
Review originally published in Sein und Werden http://www.kissthewitch.co.uk/seinund...
The name Frankenstein conjures up an image of the booted and bolted celluloid monster with its drunken gait and toddler-like curiosity. Mute and massive he's an unpredictable tour de force destined to bring about the end of civilization. The monster's star has, of course, out-shone that of his maker, the real Frankenstein, thanks to James Whale's widely-lauded cinematic offerings Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. But Whale's artistic license gave his monster a dumb, almost-comical presence, a far cry from Shelley's fearful, intelligent creature able to negotiate and manipulate to get his own way.
And what of his electric-haired bride, beautiful and doomed to be on the cover of many horror anthologies to come? In Shelley's novel she was hacked to pieces by her maker before being given that final spark of life. The author gave the creature a voice but gave his bride nothing. It is only now that she is given her own story, in the pages of Horsley's decadent, historical novel The Monster's Wife.
When Shelley wrote Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, she took the doctor to the Orkneys, a set of islands off the north coast of Scotland. Here he could be left, uninterrupted, to seek out the unformed clay with which to make his bride. And it is here that The Monster's Wife is set, on the island of Hoy, where that clay once took the form of a girl, a woman, as strong and fearless as any man.
'Though Oona was as used to dressing game as the next girl, the sight of the doe's guts pinned out across the board made her wince.'
This is not a sequel. Neither is it a story of a life before the doctor and his creature. Rather, it is a narrative that runs alongside the original, taking what is almost an after-thought and giving it a conscience. It is a story about friendship, courage and identity in a hostile climate. These are an uneducated people adept at deboning fish and slaughtering animals but ignorant of life beyond the island. Reliant on the sea for their livelihood, they live both in fear and in awe of her power. There are hints in fireside tales of what lies beneath, and sometimes the horrors that dwell in the darkness are brought forth to the beaches to litter the rocks.
'Course grass swathed the roof and huddled in clumps around the doorway. The midden spreading out in front of the shack was strewn with starfish and the clenched lips of razor clams. A grey cat rootling in the muck dug out a fish head and started licking it.'
But the sea is more than a malevolent deity and its tempestuous nature is shared with the novel's heroine, Oona, and her close friend May. The bond they share arouses suspicion among the locals, who fear a witchy threat to their manly prowess. A woman should be attentive and loyal to her man, so these two wild, wilful women who do as they please are perfect fodder for the rumour-mongers. Not least when Dr Frankenstein appears and their lives become inextricably entwined with his.
'The night he landed, a storm rose and blew boats towards the Northern ice floes… new lambs were stolen and hens found with their throats torn out. Kirk-going women left their cooking and ran wild, reeling home soused to take the distaff to their husbands' heads.'
His foreignness, his prestige and charm draw the girls in to his world. Here is a mystery to be solved. There is fear, but there is also intrigue. Desire stirs, blood flows hot and there is a crackle of electricity in the air. It is a warm comfort compared to the sparse, cold life on the island, which Horsley describes wonderfully.
'Most there had risen in darkness to break the ice-lid on the ewer's cold bone, to dress in stiff clothes unpacked from chests stuffed with camphor and lavender. They had settled old bones, sick bones, fidgety children on hard pews full of the night's damps. And now the bride was late.'
As the plot unfolds we get an insight into island life. Horsley travelled to Hoy whilst researching the book and clearly brought back a wealth of knowledge and sentiment. It is a brave move to write a historical novel, though easier, I expect, if much of the land has remained unchanged for years. The topography and landscape are significant, pushing the novel along through the twists and turns of a rugged terrain, and there is a twang to her characters' diction, while her use of words such as pandybats, bannocks, laird and sadiron give the novel an authentic feel.
'Oona fancied that the three long days and nights Jonah spent in the belly of the whale were neither as dark nor as foul as her week had been.'
It is easy to see why, not long after its publication, The Monster's Wife was nominated for the Saltire Scottish First Book of The Year Award. For all its historic and geographic authenticity, Horsley's novel is a nod to neo romanticism. Here is an author who loves the cadence of the English language...
'The words were still there, buried under layers, pushing pale and waxy horns of raw growth towards the light.'
...and the result is a moving tale with touches of beautifully-described horror nestled in the historical back-drop of a questionably malevolent island.
Review originally published in Sein und Werden http://www.kissthewitch.co.uk/seinund...
August 27, 2021
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3730978.html
A retelling of Frankenstein from the point of view of one of the Scottish islanders, where Frankenstein creates a spouse for the mosnter. TBH I didn't really get it; I didn't find the use of dialogue convincing Scottish (let alone Frankenstein's use of German) and that rather threw me, and it was difficult to believe that early 19th-century islanders would behave as described.
A retelling of Frankenstein from the point of view of one of the Scottish islanders, where Frankenstein creates a spouse for the mosnter. TBH I didn't really get it; I didn't find the use of dialogue convincing Scottish (let alone Frankenstein's use of German) and that rather threw me, and it was difficult to believe that early 19th-century islanders would behave as described.
February 23, 2026
2.5 stars. I wanted this to be better than it was.
December 16, 2014
I was recently re-reading Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, and was once again struck but his startlingly original take on the nature of gods and legends. It seems as if characters like Frankenstein, Dracula, and Sherlock Holmes have passed into legend and authors like to use them the way that Native American storytellers used Coyote. All of them are interesting, and I could go on for hours, but I really brought it up because it pertains to The Monster’s Wife, an excellent novel by Kate Horsley. Ms. Horsley’s novel is a take on Frankenstein, but it is told with such originality and force that it takes on a life of its own, and I would have enjoyed it even if I had never read, or even heard of Mary Shelly’s tale.
Set on a tiny island in the Scottish Orkney’s the story centers on two women, May and Oona, who are best friends. They are wonderful characters, beautifully drawn; May carefree and wild, Oona more introspective, perhaps because of a heart ailment that constantly reminds her that she is living on borrowed time. One thing that they have in common is the constant discrimination that single women were subject to in that time and place. The prose is poetic and every page seems to have at least one sentence that aches to be read aloud, but a cauldron of anger, fully justified, simmers underneath, and kept me constantly on edge.
The plot is simple; Victor Frankenstein shows up on the island and in secret, continues his experiments on the dead in an effort to find a wife for the un-named monster that has trailed him across the world. May and Oona both end up working as maid for him. What gives the book such tension is the constant friction that exists between the islanders, and the foreign doctor. The ever-present torch-carrying mob is always a threat, lingering just beneath the placid surface. When evidence of unsavory experiments begins to surface Ms. Horsley ratchets the tension up even higher. The fact that Oona is literally a heartbeat away from death gives the narrative a poignancy that permeates every facet of the book. There are some terrific lyrical passages where Oona seems to simply be bursting with her love of the physical world, and Ms. Horsley nails what could be sentimental twaddle in lesser hands.
In this take on the tale, the element of the supernatural is small. In an age when the line between science and magic was constantly blurred I thought that a light touch worked best. The menace, however, and sense of physical danger, are both very present in the book. In a rather ironic way the biggest sense of danger comes not from the unknown, but the known; several men in the book seem far more dangerous to Oona and May than some hypothetical monster.
A pile of sub-plots crisscrosses the book, but I am loath to speak of most of them because I hate spoilers, and there are plenty here. The insularity of the small island, and its isolation works wonders in this story. Even surrounded by the limitless ocean everything seems compressed and up close, creating a suspense that Ms. Horsley uses to her advantage. The twists and turns that make up the latter half of the book are particularly tense, and well executed, except for a few scenes where I was a bit lost about whose point-of view we were seeing events through, but that is a tiny complaint. By the end of this book I wanted to stand up and cheer, which probably gives you an idea of how much I liked it.
Review by: Mark Palm
Full Reviews Available at: http://www.thebookendfamily.weebly.com
Set on a tiny island in the Scottish Orkney’s the story centers on two women, May and Oona, who are best friends. They are wonderful characters, beautifully drawn; May carefree and wild, Oona more introspective, perhaps because of a heart ailment that constantly reminds her that she is living on borrowed time. One thing that they have in common is the constant discrimination that single women were subject to in that time and place. The prose is poetic and every page seems to have at least one sentence that aches to be read aloud, but a cauldron of anger, fully justified, simmers underneath, and kept me constantly on edge.
The plot is simple; Victor Frankenstein shows up on the island and in secret, continues his experiments on the dead in an effort to find a wife for the un-named monster that has trailed him across the world. May and Oona both end up working as maid for him. What gives the book such tension is the constant friction that exists between the islanders, and the foreign doctor. The ever-present torch-carrying mob is always a threat, lingering just beneath the placid surface. When evidence of unsavory experiments begins to surface Ms. Horsley ratchets the tension up even higher. The fact that Oona is literally a heartbeat away from death gives the narrative a poignancy that permeates every facet of the book. There are some terrific lyrical passages where Oona seems to simply be bursting with her love of the physical world, and Ms. Horsley nails what could be sentimental twaddle in lesser hands.
In this take on the tale, the element of the supernatural is small. In an age when the line between science and magic was constantly blurred I thought that a light touch worked best. The menace, however, and sense of physical danger, are both very present in the book. In a rather ironic way the biggest sense of danger comes not from the unknown, but the known; several men in the book seem far more dangerous to Oona and May than some hypothetical monster.
A pile of sub-plots crisscrosses the book, but I am loath to speak of most of them because I hate spoilers, and there are plenty here. The insularity of the small island, and its isolation works wonders in this story. Even surrounded by the limitless ocean everything seems compressed and up close, creating a suspense that Ms. Horsley uses to her advantage. The twists and turns that make up the latter half of the book are particularly tense, and well executed, except for a few scenes where I was a bit lost about whose point-of view we were seeing events through, but that is a tiny complaint. By the end of this book I wanted to stand up and cheer, which probably gives you an idea of how much I liked it.
Review by: Mark Palm
Full Reviews Available at: http://www.thebookendfamily.weebly.com
August 17, 2014
Disclaimer: I received a free digital ARC of this book from NetGalley. Although I have not finished (explained below), I feel confident that I have read enough to write a review and if necessary, changes or additions may be made to the review after I finish.
I must admit that I have never read Frankenstein. I know, I know - I’m supposed to be a true fan of horror, watching every horror/thriller film that crosses my path and eagerly gobbling up Stephen King’s stories. I’ve even acted in a play based on Frankenstein and of course, seen the movies and their derivatives. But I’ve never read Frankenstein (it’s on my list, though).
Nonetheless, anyone should be able to read this book because a) everyone already knows the basics of the story anyway, and b) Horsley’s representation works as a stand-alone (so if you have read the book, you get the added pleasure of understanding references and allusions).
I applaud Horsley’s full-hearted attempt at a follow-up to Mary Shelley’s classic. Although we often see books and movies inspired by the greats, very rarely are they so dedicated to remaining true to the original.
Horsley leaves no stone unturned. If there is detail to eke out of a situation, she finds it and describes it. The language and writing style could be passed as Mary Shelley’s own sequel. The author is clearly full of quick, sharp wit as another reviewer pointed out re: her author bio (At the age of 4, I wrote and illustrated my first collection of gothic tales, 'Fenella the Witch Fights the Hairy Sea Lion Giant', but struggled to find a publisher.). While gory and psychologically disturbing, the contents are never very scary. Personally, I would have preferred more horror, but the lack thereof makes this story accessible to people who wouldn’t be able to stomach gut-clenching terror (I guess they read Frankenstein for the ethical dilemma).
As mentioned previously, I have not yet finished the book. The story took a while to get into, perhaps because it has a relatively slow start or perhaps because the synopsis seemed to give away just a little too much information. I had the misfortune of looking at the page count and realizing I thought I had gotten much farther than I really had.
I must admit that I have never read Frankenstein. I know, I know - I’m supposed to be a true fan of horror, watching every horror/thriller film that crosses my path and eagerly gobbling up Stephen King’s stories. I’ve even acted in a play based on Frankenstein and of course, seen the movies and their derivatives. But I’ve never read Frankenstein (it’s on my list, though).
Nonetheless, anyone should be able to read this book because a) everyone already knows the basics of the story anyway, and b) Horsley’s representation works as a stand-alone (so if you have read the book, you get the added pleasure of understanding references and allusions).
I applaud Horsley’s full-hearted attempt at a follow-up to Mary Shelley’s classic. Although we often see books and movies inspired by the greats, very rarely are they so dedicated to remaining true to the original.
Horsley leaves no stone unturned. If there is detail to eke out of a situation, she finds it and describes it. The language and writing style could be passed as Mary Shelley’s own sequel. The author is clearly full of quick, sharp wit as another reviewer pointed out re: her author bio (At the age of 4, I wrote and illustrated my first collection of gothic tales, 'Fenella the Witch Fights the Hairy Sea Lion Giant', but struggled to find a publisher.). While gory and psychologically disturbing, the contents are never very scary. Personally, I would have preferred more horror, but the lack thereof makes this story accessible to people who wouldn’t be able to stomach gut-clenching terror (I guess they read Frankenstein for the ethical dilemma).
As mentioned previously, I have not yet finished the book. The story took a while to get into, perhaps because it has a relatively slow start or perhaps because the synopsis seemed to give away just a little too much information. I had the misfortune of looking at the page count and realizing I thought I had gotten much farther than I really had.
July 25, 2014
This novel is one of the best literary gothic stories I’ve read in a very long time. Author Kate Horsley did a wonderful job of providing examples of the basic, simple lives of the inhabitants of this tiny island in the Orkney’s and the friendship between May and Oona who are as close as girls can be without being actual sisters. Others on the island look on Oona with a kind of fatalistic awkwardness because she has the same affliction which caused the early death of her mother. May is different, she treats Oona as if she had no defect. The girls begin to face the realities of separation of a sort when May catches the eye of a local man and they decide to marry. Because she wants money for her wedding she agrees to go to work for the doctor who has come to live in the only large home on the island. Rumors begin to circulate about Dr. Frankenstein and his decidedly odd behavior, but Oona still goes to work in the big house alongside May because her ability to read adds to her curiosity to know what the doctor is doing with his experiments. Never could she know just how deeply she will be drawn into those very experiments she was so curious about.
I think this novel was wonderful. The tension built so slowly from the commonplace lives these characters led to the strange incidents which began to happen that it made me want to read more and more quickly. The novel is presented from the perspective of Oona and her kindness and goodness and determination to live life as fully as she possibly can comes through so completely that it gave me added sympathy for the awful things which happened to her and her friend as the story unfolded. The reactions of the villagers to things they did not understand were so natural and yet still so sad. The concept of taking Mary Shelley’s idea of the monster created by Dr. Frankenstein one step further resulted in an entertaining and engrossing reading experience for me. If you love purely written horror stories, this is a novel you don’t want to miss. And may I just say, I think the cover art for this novel is simply amazing.
I received an ARC of this novel through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are my own.
I think this novel was wonderful. The tension built so slowly from the commonplace lives these characters led to the strange incidents which began to happen that it made me want to read more and more quickly. The novel is presented from the perspective of Oona and her kindness and goodness and determination to live life as fully as she possibly can comes through so completely that it gave me added sympathy for the awful things which happened to her and her friend as the story unfolded. The reactions of the villagers to things they did not understand were so natural and yet still so sad. The concept of taking Mary Shelley’s idea of the monster created by Dr. Frankenstein one step further resulted in an entertaining and engrossing reading experience for me. If you love purely written horror stories, this is a novel you don’t want to miss. And may I just say, I think the cover art for this novel is simply amazing.
I received an ARC of this novel through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are my own.
September 24, 2014
From its brilliant opening line – ‘Life changed when he came to the island, the foreign doctor from further away than anyone cared to know’ – to its thrilling finale, The Monster’s Wife delights and entertains. It tells the story of a tiny Orkney community that’s thrown into panic when Dr Frankenstein arrives on the island: ‘The night he landed, a storm rose and blew boats towards the Northern ice floes, swept dolphins aground to lie panting on the white scythe of the beach. New lambs were stolen and hens found with their throats torn out.’ But the novel is much more than a gothic horror. Horsley’s bleak setting is brought alive by a vivid cast of characters: Oona, the protagonist, is beautifully drawn, and we root for her throughout. May, her best friend, is a complex mix of bluster and vulnerability. Equally hard to read is Dr Frankenstein – an ambiguous presence in Oona’s life and in the book. The supporting cast is equally strong – Cormick especially stands out – and yet it is the island setting that becomes, in some ways, the most important character or all. Horsley’s nature writing is a delight: for example, ‘She crossed the burn downstream from the copse where the irises thrust their yellow points though the rushes and the birches whispered last night’s secrets’; ‘The day brightened outside. Oona could no longer see the moon’s daytime ghost through the arched windows’; ‘Out where the sky hung low, a soundless fist of whiteness struck, bleached it to ash and lime and left a blood tinge to the world’. The prose adds to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the story, never obstructs it. There is a missing bride, strangled chickens, several love stories, a secret tryst, acts of sabotage in the dark of night, repressed abuse, and murder. The sub plots cross the novel like rivers cross the isle of Hoy. At the heart of it all, of course, there is Dr Frankenstein. And a monster – or two. A brilliant debut – highly recommended.
July 31, 2014
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
4.0 to 4.5 stars.
I was very hesitant about this book, as literary "retellings" and "spin-offs" have disappointed me before. But Kate Horsley clearly knows her Frankenstein (I'm imagining a battered copy toted around for years, margins full of scribbles, post-it notes peeping over the edges)--not in the passing way that many claim to know the story, but in such a way that she was able to capture time period, characterization and Gothic atmosphere while still delivering on the original's morally ambiguous premise.
The book's remote setting (on the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland) has a built-in feeling of claustrophobia, which grows from page one to the book's final pages. As a reader, I felt that I knew the island as well as Oona and May, and understood too the feeling of being trapped by circumstances and impossible choices. It was interesting to watch the evolution of Oona over the course of the story, and Horsley's envisioning of the "monster's" heart provided a new layer of moral ambiguity.
Other readers haven't commented on it, so maybe it was just me--there came a point, about 60% through the story, where the use of the pronouns "he" and "she" became too much for me. Yes, that's part of the mystery of this story for the reader, to discover who has done what--but at times it felt deliberately deceptive, and it caused me to have to go back and reread several scenes to make sure I was fully appreciating the behavior and choices of the characters.
All in all, a great read, and I don't think Frankenstein lovers will be disappointed.
4.0 to 4.5 stars.
I was very hesitant about this book, as literary "retellings" and "spin-offs" have disappointed me before. But Kate Horsley clearly knows her Frankenstein (I'm imagining a battered copy toted around for years, margins full of scribbles, post-it notes peeping over the edges)--not in the passing way that many claim to know the story, but in such a way that she was able to capture time period, characterization and Gothic atmosphere while still delivering on the original's morally ambiguous premise.
The book's remote setting (on the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland) has a built-in feeling of claustrophobia, which grows from page one to the book's final pages. As a reader, I felt that I knew the island as well as Oona and May, and understood too the feeling of being trapped by circumstances and impossible choices. It was interesting to watch the evolution of Oona over the course of the story, and Horsley's envisioning of the "monster's" heart provided a new layer of moral ambiguity.
Other readers haven't commented on it, so maybe it was just me--there came a point, about 60% through the story, where the use of the pronouns "he" and "she" became too much for me. Yes, that's part of the mystery of this story for the reader, to discover who has done what--but at times it felt deliberately deceptive, and it caused me to have to go back and reread several scenes to make sure I was fully appreciating the behavior and choices of the characters.
All in all, a great read, and I don't think Frankenstein lovers will be disappointed.
August 27, 2014
This review and others are available on my blog.
Set on a tiny island in the Scottish Orkneys, Kate Horsley's The Monster's Wife is a brooding and atmospheric sequel to Frankenstein, told from the perspective of the future bride of Frankenstein. Calling this novel either a sequel or a reimagining does Horsley a disservice. This is very much a gothic creation with its own identity and texture. At its heart is the friendship between two young women who find themselves drawn into the struggle between Dr. Frankenstein and his Monster.
The small island of Hoy is its own peculiar little world, and Horsley paints a lyrical and occasionally morbid portrait of island life. Oona is a wild, stifled young woman, doomed by the same illness that killed her mother, she lives her life in the shadow of her impending death, dreams of escape and the world beyond. May is her closest friend, the rock she clings too, but May is slipping away, and they find themselves drawn to the mysterious Dr. Frankenstein, becoming his accomplices. Their relationship takes several dark turns, as Oona fumbles her way towards understanding Frankenstein and his purpose for them.
The Monster's Wife is a lyrical and touching debut. Horsley has created a gothic world of her own out of Shelley's novel and allows the reader's knowledge to haunt the story, as she slowly builds towards her tragic yet hopeful climax. Ambitious, moody, and deeply enjoyable.
**Received copy from NetGalley for Review
Set on a tiny island in the Scottish Orkneys, Kate Horsley's The Monster's Wife is a brooding and atmospheric sequel to Frankenstein, told from the perspective of the future bride of Frankenstein. Calling this novel either a sequel or a reimagining does Horsley a disservice. This is very much a gothic creation with its own identity and texture. At its heart is the friendship between two young women who find themselves drawn into the struggle between Dr. Frankenstein and his Monster.
The small island of Hoy is its own peculiar little world, and Horsley paints a lyrical and occasionally morbid portrait of island life. Oona is a wild, stifled young woman, doomed by the same illness that killed her mother, she lives her life in the shadow of her impending death, dreams of escape and the world beyond. May is her closest friend, the rock she clings too, but May is slipping away, and they find themselves drawn to the mysterious Dr. Frankenstein, becoming his accomplices. Their relationship takes several dark turns, as Oona fumbles her way towards understanding Frankenstein and his purpose for them.
The Monster's Wife is a lyrical and touching debut. Horsley has created a gothic world of her own out of Shelley's novel and allows the reader's knowledge to haunt the story, as she slowly builds towards her tragic yet hopeful climax. Ambitious, moody, and deeply enjoyable.
**Received copy from NetGalley for Review
Did Not Finish
July 18, 2014From the first page it wasn't looking good for me. I had to look up six words in the first two pages – either the author is trying to be clever and including unusual words, or she is using terms which were around during the time period, or she's trying to replicate Shelley's style within this book. I'm thinking it might be a combination of all three.
I am aware of the Frankenstein story from films and I really liked Dean Koontz's slant on the tale but I have to admit that I've never read the original classic by Shelley. I don't do classics so It's pretty unlikely that I will but I have heard that it is nothing like how Frankenstein is portrayed in the films. So I am assuming that this book “follows on” from the Shelley version of Frankenstein rather than the usual film/TV versions.
It definitely has a gothic feel to it from the start. It is set on the remote Scottish Islands. One of the beginning chapters recounts a short boat trip for Oona and May in a small rowing boat during a storm which I thought was very atmospheric. Once at sea, they dumped boxes full of unknown “stuff” which was putrid smelling so I'm presuming body parts. This did intrigue me enough to dismiss the writing style and keep reading.
But for how much longer? ...well, not much actually! I abandoned the book unfortunately. It just wasn't doing it for me. I'm not ruling out picking it up again at some point in the future but now is not the time for me. As I did not finish it, I haven't given it a star rating.
I am aware of the Frankenstein story from films and I really liked Dean Koontz's slant on the tale but I have to admit that I've never read the original classic by Shelley. I don't do classics so It's pretty unlikely that I will but I have heard that it is nothing like how Frankenstein is portrayed in the films. So I am assuming that this book “follows on” from the Shelley version of Frankenstein rather than the usual film/TV versions.
It definitely has a gothic feel to it from the start. It is set on the remote Scottish Islands. One of the beginning chapters recounts a short boat trip for Oona and May in a small rowing boat during a storm which I thought was very atmospheric. Once at sea, they dumped boxes full of unknown “stuff” which was putrid smelling so I'm presuming body parts. This did intrigue me enough to dismiss the writing style and keep reading.
But for how much longer? ...well, not much actually! I abandoned the book unfortunately. It just wasn't doing it for me. I'm not ruling out picking it up again at some point in the future but now is not the time for me. As I did not finish it, I haven't given it a star rating.
August 9, 2016
I got a Twitter recommendation for Kate Horsley's novel 'The American Girl' and I was intrigued and when I did a little research I discovered that her previous novel 'The Monster's Wife' was a sequel to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
In Horsley's novel, Dr Frankenstein has moved to the island of Hoy in the Orkney islands, to the north of Scotland and moves into the local run down mansion house. The story is told through the eyes of Oona, a local girl, who along with her best friend May take up jobs as housemaids for the doctor. Strange goings on take place on the island and the locals are soon blaming these on the mysterious doctor. Oona and May both seem to fall under the doctor's spell but when May goes missing on her wedding day blame is placed on Oona and the doctor and Oona also finds herself stalked by a mysterious stranger.
This is a great gothic horror novel which feels as though it could have been written at the time. The novel is as much about the relationships between the various characters and also the superstitions and fears in the small God fearing community. The descriptions of the bleak and windswept scenery of the island and seascape, paint a fairly vivid picture of island life. The story is gripping as for the main you're never quite sure what is going on until about three quarters of the way through when things become clear.
A very satisfying and unusual debut from Kate Horsley, who herself appears to be a rather unusual character, if her biography at the start of the book is anything to go by.
In Horsley's novel, Dr Frankenstein has moved to the island of Hoy in the Orkney islands, to the north of Scotland and moves into the local run down mansion house. The story is told through the eyes of Oona, a local girl, who along with her best friend May take up jobs as housemaids for the doctor. Strange goings on take place on the island and the locals are soon blaming these on the mysterious doctor. Oona and May both seem to fall under the doctor's spell but when May goes missing on her wedding day blame is placed on Oona and the doctor and Oona also finds herself stalked by a mysterious stranger.
This is a great gothic horror novel which feels as though it could have been written at the time. The novel is as much about the relationships between the various characters and also the superstitions and fears in the small God fearing community. The descriptions of the bleak and windswept scenery of the island and seascape, paint a fairly vivid picture of island life. The story is gripping as for the main you're never quite sure what is going on until about three quarters of the way through when things become clear.
A very satisfying and unusual debut from Kate Horsley, who herself appears to be a rather unusual character, if her biography at the start of the book is anything to go by.
August 27, 2014
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is quite an accomplished debut novel. The imagery is vivid, the writing striking. The subject matter, rather gruesome. It's been described as Gothic, but I don't know if I'd go that far or not. Certainly it's atmospheric, though. Most of the book takes place in a tiny hamlet in Scotland- the town's population is "a score and ten." We Begin the novel by meeting two young women who are friends- May and Oona. May has just begun working as a housemaid for extra money, for a young German doctor who has mysteriously arrived on the island and keeps to himself. Okay, maybe it's pretty Gothic.
The relationship between Oona and May, and the choices they make as they grow up and fear growing apart, is the heart of the novel. You may already have read that this is a continuation of the Frankenstein story, and that you can expect some horrific happenings. I knew that going in, but didn't know what good writing I was going to get on top of it. I'll read more from this author.
This is quite an accomplished debut novel. The imagery is vivid, the writing striking. The subject matter, rather gruesome. It's been described as Gothic, but I don't know if I'd go that far or not. Certainly it's atmospheric, though. Most of the book takes place in a tiny hamlet in Scotland- the town's population is "a score and ten." We Begin the novel by meeting two young women who are friends- May and Oona. May has just begun working as a housemaid for extra money, for a young German doctor who has mysteriously arrived on the island and keeps to himself. Okay, maybe it's pretty Gothic.
The relationship between Oona and May, and the choices they make as they grow up and fear growing apart, is the heart of the novel. You may already have read that this is a continuation of the Frankenstein story, and that you can expect some horrific happenings. I knew that going in, but didn't know what good writing I was going to get on top of it. I'll read more from this author.
July 14, 2014
I'm not going to review this on my blog, because it's just not worth the time and effort it'll take. The Monster's Wife bored me from beginning to end, to the extent that I'm not even interested in ranting out a negative review. I expected that the plot would be very slow, but I assumed the book would be driven by twisted psychological portrayals, tense relationships, and uncomfortable intimacies. But mostly it's just Oona the outcast running around the island without achieving anything, and devoting herself to Dr Frankenstein for very thin, vague reasons. You know exactly what Frankenstein is up to and that it will end badly, so there's no mystery (although Horsley does end up rewriting the end of the story to make it more interesting). If the many atmospheric descriptions of the island or the many tragic descriptions of Oona's loneliness and physical discomfort can sustain you, then you might enjoy this. I just found it incredibly disappointing.
July 19, 2014
I often think of characters in terms of Venn diagrams. (Okay, I think of people in these terms a lot of the time. What do you expect? I'm a librarian.) Character's circles collide with each other as they get caught up in each other's stories. Authors let us zoom in on these circles and this shapes our perspectives on what's happening in the novel or short story or whatever we're reading. This image of a Venn diagram kept popping into my head as I read Kate Horsley's The Monster's Wife. In this book, Oona Scollay's circle is pulled into a story already in progress when a Herr Doktor Frankenstein arrives on the island of Hoy, in the Orkneys...
Read the rest of my review on A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review on A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.
July 17, 2014
In a tiny community of thirty villagers, Oona and her best friend May are reaching womanhood. The island's newest resident, Victor Frankenstein, seems to bring dark omens -- and even death -- in his wake. As May's wedding day draws near, she goes in service for Dr. Frankenstein, cleaning and preparing his meals. One night she enlists Oona's help in a disturbing surreptitious mission for her employer. Oona becomes afraid for her friend and for the village, and her fears are not unfounded -- bizarre, horrifying events, including the disappearance of a villager, may be linked to Dr. Frankenstein's strange, unnatural experiments.
Please see my complete review here:http://mysteriousbibliophile.blogspot...
Please see my complete review here:http://mysteriousbibliophile.blogspot...
August 9, 2014
First of all Frankenstein is one of my favorite novels. Through the years there have been numerous sequels and prequels to the most beloved story and i have read quite a number of them . I enjoyed this novel immensely . Kate Horsley maintains the tone of the original but told from different perspectives.i felt Oona and May were likeable and believable characters. The book has a truly gothic atmosphere. The story keeps you guessing and quickly turning the pages.I look forward to hearing more from this writer
August 18, 2015
I haven't read the original Mary Shelley novel Frankenstein, so I don't know if this imaginative sequel is true to the genre and style. Many reviewers think so, so I'll trust that they're accurate in their assessments.
Horsley's tale was unique in that it was told from the perspective of the monster's "bride" or "wife." The writing itself was often quite lyrical, but the whole thing sometimes seemed a bit tedious -- feeling much longer than its 258 pages. I actually preferred Dean Koontz's modern retelling (Frankenstein series) far more interesting and satisfying.
Horsley's tale was unique in that it was told from the perspective of the monster's "bride" or "wife." The writing itself was often quite lyrical, but the whole thing sometimes seemed a bit tedious -- feeling much longer than its 258 pages. I actually preferred Dean Koontz's modern retelling (Frankenstein series) far more interesting and satisfying.
September 3, 2014
This is a lovely continuation of "Frankenstein." I enjoyed it thoroughly. Ms. Horsley has written a wonderful debut novel. She is quite courageous to attempt one of the great literary classics and her attempt is admirable. This is also an allegorical novel, in my opinion, all about friendship and love, and finally, the theme of liberation.
This novel was lovingly crafted. Hopefully, Ms. Horsley will write much more just as good!
This novel was lovingly crafted. Hopefully, Ms. Horsley will write much more just as good!
August 14, 2014
The book was well-written, but ultimately not my bag. I was more into the final quarter than the first half, which tended to drag (in a gothic suspense sort of way.) I would recommend you read this book on a digital device, since the author drops in ample lingo from the 1800s that you may need help understanding.
August 10, 2014
Enjoyed this tremendously! An amazingly atmospheric Gothic tale, it was beautifully, poetically written, and scary, sad (and touching) all at once. The cover art was perfect too. I look forward to reading more from Kate Horsley.
Reviewed in exchange for a preview Kindle copy.
Reviewed in exchange for a preview Kindle copy.
December 18, 2015
I loved Horsley's book, "The Pagan Nun" ."The Monster's Wife," was not up to that mark in the telling, but good story too.
December 31, 2015
A wonderful sequel to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with the same sense of tragedy. I loved the setting in Orkney as we visited a similar island years ago.
August 22, 2020
tw: body horror, implied rape and assault (dubcon), injury detail, animal death
Harold,,,,,
Harold,,,,,
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