Book Review: "Frankenstein" - Mary Shelley

Hi Steemians!
I decided to give Frankenstein a go this year since 2018 is also the 200th anniversary of its first publication. Initially I was really taken with the book and loved my time reading it.

(picture credit: Goodreads)

I genuinely enjoyed learning about the Frankenstein family, that seemed to consist only of kind, warm people that really cared for each other. I think it's quite rare to encounter loving families in classic English novels so this was a very pleasant surprise. I also really enjoyed the monster's account of his own early life, which was very similar in tone.

The second half of the novel, however, was quite a big disappointment to me. It entirely consists of Victor Frankenstein pitying himself. There are genuinely pages upon pages upon pages where all he does is whine and talk about how horrible his life is now. The worst part is that I couldn't at all get myself to sympathize with him, since the only person at fault for his misery... IS HE HIMSELF. And not, as he himself thinks, because he's the one who created the monster, but because he's actually a huge fucking dick.

Victor created a human being out of thin air, then awakened him to life and THEN LEFT HIM ALONE. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. It seems like he just thought something along the lines of, oh this is just going to sort itself out somehow.

The monster, understandably distressed, disoriented and forlon, goes to seek its maker and also tries to connect with the humans around him because, as he keeps mentioning over and over, literally all he wants is love and affection. He has a kind heart and wants nothing more than to be accepted by people, but whenever they look upon his ugly face they are scared off and despise him.
When he finds Victor and confronts him about this, Victor essentially tells him to fuck off and die. Like whaaaaaaaaaaaat.

Being rejected over and over and over, most notably by the very person who created him, the monster turns into... well, a monster. OH WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT THAT DENYING SOMEONE BASIC LOVE AND AFFECTION WOULD TURN THEM INTO A BAD PERSON. WOW SUCH NEWS.
I'm genuinely upset at this. I felt so sorry for the "monster", who's never even given so much as a NAME, because he was treated like shit and then expected to just take himself out of the picture and not bother anyone anymore. Victor completely neglects any and all responsibilities towards him and in the end only admits to himself he made the mistake of creating him in the first place.
I am facepalming so hard, even as I'm writing this.

I could also never fully get a handle on how Mary Shelley herself felt about the monster. I thought since she kept him repeating how he'd originally only had good intentions she was on his side... but then everyone (including Victor) kept telling Victor how pure and good of a person he is, which is SO not the case in my opinion. I violently hate the guy. Again, especially since all he does is fucking pity himself for a hundred pages straight. Also he's an idiot and makes stupid decisions and doesn't think ahead at all. But mostly, because he's an asshole (sorry I will stop swearing soon... maybe).

A final thing that bothered me is that the book kept spoiling itself. Not that it wasn't quite predictable in the first place, but you don't need to make it worse by constantly saying things like "at that time I had no idea yet what horrible thing would happen to so and so" whole chapters before said thing would occur. Way to take every shred of suspense out of the situation.

To conclude, I am genuinely annoyed at this book and disappointed that my enjoyment of it didn't last throughout the whole thing. I feel like there were so many better messages that could have been conveyed here, such as the superficiality of human affection and how we need to be able to see past that... but I feel like this book ended up making the exact opposite point. Never mind that it was supposed to be a horror story that was only horrifying in the complete lack of common sense displayed by Victor. I had truly hoped for more.

I apologize for this not being the most eloquent review ever... but I am truly annoyed :P
Have you had a better experience reading Frankenstein? Let me know!

Happy reading,
xx
ivymuse