Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Adapted by Gary Reed Illustrated by Frazer Irving Date of Publication: 2006 ISBN: 0142404071 Number of Pages: 175

REQUIRED READING ABILITY: Junior: Average Intermediate: Low
GENRES: Horror/Graphic Novel
THEMES : Good versus Evil - Life versus Death - Sacrifice and Redemption - Appearance versus Reality - Revenge

SUMMARY:
Captain Robert Walton finds a man in the Arctic Circle, barely alive. Walton nurses the man back to health, and the man reveals himself as Dr. Victor Frankenstein. He tells Walton about his upbringing, his apathy towards school, his mother's death, and his desire to study chemistry to prevent death. Through his studies and work, Frankenstein has apparently discovered the secret to life.
Frankenstein goes on to tell his story to Walton.

He apparently decided to “create” a man, and began robbing graves and harvesting organs in order to put together his creation as one would put together a puzzle. He became obsessed with his work and more and more isolated. As the creation came to life, Victor Frankenstein began to realize that he had created a monster. He had intended the creature to be beautiful, but when it awoke, he was disgusted. It had yellow, watery eyes, translucent skin, and was of massive size.

After a series of encounters with his monster that demonstrate Victor’s success is not what he intended, shock and overwork cause Victor to take ill for several months. After recovering, Victor discovers that his creation had murdered his brother. A maid is charged with the murder, however, and is executed. Victor enters a deep depression over the deaths caused by his creation, and flees to the mountains. The monster tracks Victor down while he is hiking one day, is very eloquent and intelligent, and explains his experiences during his reanimation. He describes the terrible pain he was in, and how he escaped into the woods. When he found a small village, all the villagers attacked him and drove him away. While hiding in a nearby barn, the monster witnessed a family, witnessed love, and witnessed sharing. He also learned to speak, and began to learn history and philosophy, realizing who he was and how he was created. Everywhere he went, though, people called him a monster. In his search to find Victor, he killed the young William when he found out he was Victor's brother. He framed Justine because he wanted others to suffer as he did. At the end of his confession, the monster begs Frankenstein to create him a companion, a wife, and promises that if he does so, the monster will leave Victor's world forever.

Victor agrees and he finds a deserted island where he begins the creation of a mate for the monster. When Victor is nearly finished, he realizes he cannot go through with it, and destroys the half-completed wife. The monster vows to get revenge on Victor and visits him on his own wedding night, murdering Victor’s wife, Elizabeth, as he has promised. Raging with vengeance, Victor pursues the monster north into the Arctic, where the story comes full circle...

WHO WOULD LOVE THIS BOOK? A kid who...
- loves the original Frankenstein story
- loves gory elements
- enjoys horror movies
- loves comic books
- likes monsters
- likes stories told in dual modalities
- needs pictures to understand text

WHAT ELSE?
There is a very gothic feel to the illustrations, and they are quite beautiful. The cover's illustration of the monster is a bit scary, but the pictures on the inside are not as bad. Frankenstein's monster is responsible for the deaths of several young people, however, and the “man as creator, not God” element might strike some students as controversial, just as the original did in its time.

The book is one of a series of classic graphic novels by Puffin Books. It contains a section at the end about adapting a long book, written by the illustrator, with examples of storyboards, sketches, and some original cover art. This makes it a good choice for media literacy as well.