To start this review off, I’m really upset that I didn’t enjoy this book. Frankenstein is my favorite classic, and I love Kiersten’s Conquerors Saga. I wasn’t expecting to finish this novel with a less than loving rating. Things just happen though.

I love watching authors take liberties within historical fiction or reimagined tales, but this one felt all sorts of wrong to me. I expected to see Elizabeth growing up with Victor and her noticing his darker side, but the way this story was written felt like they went the easy route. I can’t explain much more than that because it would spoil, but it just felt EASY. It took away the deeper questions you’re left with after reading Frankenstein. If you’re a fan of the original book, I would say steer clear from this story because.. just you’ll have similar issues to mine.

I think a lot of my issues stem from my absolute, intense love for the classic Frankenstein. It felt as if she took the original story and overly sensationalized it. It felt like a fan fiction and quite frankly one of those dramas on TV that amplify everything to high and higher levels of ridiculousness.

Also Elizabeth in the beginning had this really unhealthy and weird devotion that made me super uncomfortable, which could’ve been the point, but for me it just didn’t work. I know most of her feelings were due to her survival instincts that Victor and the Frankenstein family gave her, but HENRY WAS JUST AS WEALTHY AND SUSTAINABLE. GO TO HIM! Also the shift away from her "devotion" wasn’t realistic. It was instantaneous instead of believable.

The story ends up being COMPLETELY different from the classic, which was another point of contention for me. Mary Shelley had put all this hard work into creating two tragic “heroes” and “villains” in her original tale, and to see that taken to base levels.. upset me.

The story did have some good dark and creepy moments, but other times it felt as if the author was trying too hard to be gothic. It felt unnatural and took me out of the story immediately.
The saddest part to me was how the depth to Victor and the creature got taken away. They were always my favorite part of the original because you can sympathize and relate to both on certain levels. Though because of their revenge and malevolent emotions, they turned themselves into shadows of their former selves. Plus, the whole Antarctica aspect was taken away, and just NOPE I LOVED THAT NOPEDY NOPE NOPE.

I understood her creation of Elizabeth as a strong female character, but it didn’t feel right to me. Mary made all her females weak to show how man takes away their rights and their livelihood through the atrocities of Victor and his creation. It’s was to criticize the time period because her family certainly exemplified strong feminism since her mom was Mary Wollstonecraft. Women during this period showed strength in other ways than just the trivial ones represented in this.
The ending also just- *shakes head*

This is getting too long, but I’m so sorry for such a negative review. I just have so many emotions about it. As I said I do love Kiersten’s other works, but this one was not for me. I had such high expectations, and I was sadly disappointed. Maybe if you have never read this classic you can enjoy it, but it took out all the elements I love from the classic. That’s something I can’t ignore.