Publication Date: May, 28th 2019
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
ISBN: 9781787331419
Genre: Science Fiction
Strong Point: Mary Shelley’s story as told in the book.
Weak Point: The contemporary stories are quite messy.
Books on Tour Rating: 
(3/5)
The StoryGraph Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3,49/5)
“Doubleness is nearer to the truth for me.”
“FRANKISSSTEIN”
This is not the first book I read by Jeanette Winterson. In fact Frankissstein is the second one and I’m afraid it will be the last.
I started to read “Oranges are not the only fruit” in 2023. But after reading 38% of the book I had to DNF it. I couldn’t care less about the characters nor the story.
So when I saw one of my favourite you tubers recommending this book I thought I would give Winterson a second chance with a more actual book.
However, I am again disappointed with the story and the characters. In addition, I found it very hard to write the review of this book. Let’s get to it.
THE STORY
Frankissstein is divided into different timelines. The first one takes place in Lake Geneva (Switzerland) in 1816. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein’s author, is at this lake with her husband the poet Shelley, Lord Byron, Byron’s physician Polidori, and Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairmont.
They are spending some time there and one day, out of boredom, they decide to write some ghostly stories.
Mary is struggling with finding a topic for her own story. She talks about the Dead, the Living, the Undead, etc. but she lacks the confidence to start writing.
In the end, she finds inspiration about what to write after dreaming of it.
This part is based on real events in the life of Mary, Shelley and Byron.
On the other hand, in the present time we find Rye Shelley. He goes to a convention about robots and electronics where he interviews Ron Lord, who has a business of sex bots.
Winterson tells us about Rye’s story, his circumstances, his feelings, etc., but there is basically no plot, apart from the protagonist and the secondary characters meandering around and having random, weird conversations.
Winterson is trying to “re-write” or reimagine the story of Frankenstein using the names of its characters for her story.
MARY
Mary Shelley is the most interesting “character” of the whole book. We learn about her feelings for Shelley, about her life, likes and dislikes, her family and about being a woman writer in the 19th century.
Furthermore we suffer with her about her miscarriages, her pregnancies, her own trauma with the death of her mother, etc., which makes this part of the book the motor running the whole story.
Her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, the famous British writer and advocate of women’s rights. Her influence on Mary is palpable during her monologues and it is by far the most stimulating and thought-inspiring part of the book.
To see her struggling to “give birth” to her monster Frankenstein is very interesting and far more entertaining than the “giving birth” or “re-birthing” that the modern day characters talk about, when discussing the cryogenics of Jack the scientist’s head (you would have to read the book if you want to know what that last sentence mean!).
In the modern day, there is no plot, or barely any. Furthermore, the characters are quite messy and not well developed. Language is rough and hurried and the characters seem to interrupt each other all the time which makes the book very annoying to read.
This is “a love story” but I simply do not see it. I only see Mary Shelley in love with her husband and her children, but that is all.
FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT “FRANKISSSTEIN”
The end is, of course, the most disappointing part of the book. There is no explanation whatsoever to what has happened in the contemporary story. Maybe I was expecting a lot more than what the book really is, based on the good reviews.
About Mary, the author tells us about her present situation but it is not closed up.
And taking into consideration that her story is based on her real life, and that this is the only part I enjoyed from the book, what does this say of Winterson’s art?
There are numerous instances in the book that are thought provoking but this is not enough for me to like the book. For example, the part of artificial intelligence and how humans will (or are already) cope with it, is fascinating but apart from those moments Frankissstein is simply bare. I just want to spend time with Mary Shelley, to be honest…
And please don’t get me started with the character of Ron Lord, because…it is just simply too much…and that creepy lab in the bunker…what the heck was that necessary for?
I would not recommend this book. Read it at your own risk.
