Mary's Monster, by Lita Judge

From my Kirkus column about Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein, by Lita Judge:

She writes about the arc of inspiration, highlighting connections between Mary Shelley’s life, her reading and writing, and her mother’s life, and her reading and writing. And, less overtly, Judge draws lines between their own personal understandings of the world to the reader’s own personal understanding of the world—and how those understandings are formed by the people and ideas we engage with, and by the media we consume.

She writes about double standards, injustice, hypocrisy, and idealism versus realism—sometimes drawing the connections between Mary Shelley’s life and Frankenstein for the reader, sometimes allowing the reader to make the connections on their own.

Books -- Historicals, Books -- Poetry, Books -- YA, Kirkus, ReviewsLeila RoyApril 8, 2018lita judge, kirkus, review, historical, biography, published 2018, illustrated novel, poetry, mary shelley, gothic, author jComment