Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein

Written by Lita Judge

Mary’s Monster is an illustrated biography of Mary Shelley that concentrates on the pieces of her life that most affected her creation of Frankenstein. Mary lived a complicated and tumultuous life from her childhood through her early twenties. Her life was devoid of love and normalcy, and her drive was to find love and safety.

The illustrations convey emotion, perfectly adding to the emotional complexity of the biography. However, the content tends towards the mature side. Like Mary Shelley’s life, it contains complex affairs, use of opium, violence, and other mature content which is on page. However, it is done tastefully while still conveying the truth and emotion of her life.

Review by Jessica Moody, Olympus Jr High Media Center
Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5 stars)
Interest Level: Grades 9-12

Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein
Written by Lita Judge
Roaring Brook Press
312 pages
Release Date: January 30, 2018
A review copy was provided by the publisher.

Tags:

2018 YA Nonfiction, Authors Biography, Biography, Biography in Verse, Frankenstein, Jessica Moody, Lita Judge, Mary Shelley, Mary's Monster, Nonfiction in Verse, Poetry, Women Authors Biography, Women Biography