Review: Shade: The Complete Trilogy: A Re-Imagining of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein by Merrie Destefano

About the Book

A holiday in Switzerland is supposed to lift Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin’s spirits. She wants to forget the past and have fun. In fact, everyone in her party is running away from one indiscretion or another—from her fiancé Percy Shelley to Lord Byron to Mary’s stepsister, Claire. But from the moment Mary arrives at Byron’s villa, she knows something is wrong. He rushes her indoors and forbids all of them to go out at night, claiming that the horrible weather has driven wild animals down from the mountains.

The only person who doesn’t seem to be running away from anything is a handsome, young Italian doctor, John Polidori. Instead, he is fervently pursuing local folk legends and a new scientific theory that claims people can be raised from the dead.

But it’s not until they all challenge one other to write ghost stories that the real danger begins. In a nightmare, Mary envisions a patchwork man animated by Galvanism and she begins writing Frankenstein. Likewise, fueled by local legends, John writes The Vampyre—one of the first vampire stories ever written.

What neither one of them knows is that they are conjuring a dark evil. Before long, all of their lives will be in danger—for neither of these characters are imaginary. Far from it.

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My Thoughts

Haunting and atmospheric this gothic tale was full of chilling horror, making it the perfect October read. I was completely absorbed in it from the very first sentence and held captive until the very last word.

Shade reimagines the origins of Frankenstein in a compelling and unique way. It's action-packed and has a lightning-quick, rapid-fire pace that kept me glued to the pages and reading as fast as possible.

This was my first time reading anything by this author and I loved it. I'll definitely be checking out more from her. I highly recommend Shade to anyone looking for a good, scary read.

Four Stars