Read this book if:

  • You’ve read the science fiction classic Frankenstein and you want to know more about its creator Mary Shelley
  • You love books with ALL THE DRAMA (Mary Shelley had a serious amount of drama in her teen years as she was imagining and creating Frankenstein)
  • You love books with brooding, atmospheric art that bring a historical time to life

So, 2018 is the 200th birthday of Mary Shelley’s iconic sci-fi novel Frankenstein. And you better believe we’re celebrating! We got a grant to put on some awesome Frankenstein programs as part of Indiana’s One State / One Story community read, so this October we will be delving deep into Frankenstein. Get ahead of the game by reading Frankenstein now and/or reading ABOUT Frankenstein. It’s the perfect time to pick up Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lita Judge (2018; 320 pages).

This biography in verse is written for teens, but it’s definitely something that adults will enjoy, too. In striking prose poems, Lita Judge takes a look at Mary Shelley’s teen years. And what a dramatic set of years it was. When she was 16, Mary fell in love with a married man, Percy Shelley (who wasn’t that much older than her – he was 21 at the time). Pregnant with his child, she ran away with him to Switzerland… where she had a daughter who died and Percy started fooling around with Mary’s step-sister. It’s easy to see where Mary’s Creature gets his yearning for a family, for a sense of belonging: it was something Mary was searching for her whole life.

This is a fascinating true story told in a unique way. Lita Judge has accompanied her poems with dark, brooding artwork that create an atmosphere for the dark events happening in the book. This isn’t quite a graphic novel, but it’s highly illustrated and will appeal to readers of graphic novels.

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— Abby Johnson, Collection Development Leader