“I will find you wherever you go. And when I do, I will be ready. You are mine.”

Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Format: Physical copy

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Synopsis

Elizabeth Lavenza hasn’t had a proper meal in weeks. Her thin arms are covered with bruises from her “caregiver,” and she is on the verge of being thrown into the streets . . . until she is brought to the home of Victor Frankenstein, an unsmiling, solitary boy who has everything–except a friend.

Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable–and it works. She is taken in by the Frankenstein family and rewarded with a warm bed, delicious food, and dresses of the finest silk. Soon she and Victor are inseparable.

But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth’s survival depends on managing Victor’s dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost . . . as the world she knows is consumed by darkness.

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The Verdict

I’m not going to lie, it kind of hurts that I had to give my most anticipated release of 2018 3.5 stars, and that it took me almost three months to read this book. It’s not that it was bad, it was just so slow in the beginning. With Kiersten White being one of my favorite authors and Frankenstein being my favorite classic, I was HYPED for this book, but maybe I over-hyped myself for this one?

Let’s just get what I didn’t like out of the way, shall we? My main issue with this book was the pacing. It was really all over the place. The beginning was so slow as we were tossed between the past and present. The flashbacks of Elizabeth, Victor, and their childhood friend Henry were vital to the story but… it was still agonizingly slow. I felt like I couldn’t read more than a chapter at a time without being bored until at least 150 pages in, which is about the halfway mark since the book is on the shorter side. It just dragged on and on and I really wasn’t that invested.

HOWEVER

The party then started getting fun when we realize how off the rails Victor really is, and his game of cat and mouse with Elizabeth begins. Which is basically, like, the last 70 ages of the book.

Now, moving on the the things I loved. For staters, Elizabeth’s character was by far one of my favorite things about this book. We learn about Elizabeth’s life before she came to the Frankenstein estate and why she was so willing to do whatever it would take to make sure she stayed with the Frankenstein’s forever. Which really made me feel for her especially as she continued to put up with Victor’s antics, and stay in a relationship that become extremely toxic because she felt it was the safest thing to do. I was rooting so hard for her to stand up for herself and break the cycle.

Kiersten White always delivers stories with the perfect amount of feminism. It’s an unapologetic story that takes place in the 1800’s. Obviously the roles of women in society back then are much different than today, so it battles the sexism tooth and nail until the very end. If this story were about Victor and his “descent” to creating Frankenstein, it would not even come close to Elizabeth’s story.

The world-building was so good in this one. Like, CRAZY GOOD. It was super atmospheric, dark, and just everything I could have hoped for. The writing definitely did not let me down either. And, I also really enjoyed how this book touched upon friendship as well, I wasn’t really expecting that so it was a nice addition to the story.

Favorite Quotes

“You are mine, Elizabeth Lavenza, and nothing will take you from me. Not even death.”

“I have waded through hell to deliver you heaven.”

“The trap was set. And I was both bait and poison.”

All in all, while I’m still bummed that this didn’t live up to all my expectations,  I would be lying if I said I did not enjoy this. Kiersten White is still and probably always will be an auto-buy author for me, so you best believe I will buying her latest book Slayer the day it comes out.

Until next time,