I received an ARC through NetGalley and this is my honest and voluntary review.

A marvelous, richly written historical account of Shelley's death, and Mary Shelley reclaiming something for herself. When Shelley dies, Mary is not allowed to go his cremation because she's not a man - and she has to face that some people she believed to be "their" friends were actually her husband's friends. This novella is about grief and love, but also about rebellious women who dress as men to sneak into lectures and other places that they are banned from.

The second half of the novella is a series of imaginings of what might have happened on that boat where Shelley died. It's a bit dream-like, a bit abstract, and I enjoyed it less than the first half, but it was still beautifully written.