Beverley Birch

Frankenstein is known for creating a truly terrifying monster. But things are not always as they seem. Was Frankenstein’s creature always monstrous? Or did his life and loneliness change him?

A retelling of Mary Shelley’s classic tale of a scientist’s overwhelming ambition – and his dangerous blindness to the consequences of his actions.

Illustrated by Rohan Eason

Here’s a short extract. Frankenstein begins to tell his story  …  

 ‘What I’ll tell you now will fill you with horror and fear. You’ll know of the terrible events that led me here, to this land of ice, searching for that demon you’ve seen.

You see, my friend, I was aflame with one idea, one purpose.

That to understand life, you must first understand death.

******

So began days and nights in dismal burial places, looking at the dead, studying how human bodies decay. I haunted these joyless places, until in the midst of darkness a blinding light broke into my mind.

I discovered how life itself begins. There came the day when I was able to make life, out of death, to make dead, lifeless matter alive again.

I went to graveyards, mortuaries, the dissecting rooms of hospitals. In secret, I gathered the dead matter I’d need.

Oh, the horrors of this awful, secret work!

******

I didn’t eat or sleep. My dream consumed me: to conjure life – out of death.

Oh, my friend! If only I’d known …

******

some pages from the book

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[Frankenstein published by HarperCollins: Collins Big Cat]