Kiersten White’s The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein breathes new life into the story of Victor Frankenstein.
In an unsettlingly grim re-imagining of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein is as foreboding and compelling, if not more sinister, than the original work. Arguably the first science fiction novel, Frankenstein has many retellings in all forms of media that never feel stale in their storytelling and ability to showcase how monstrous humans can be.
Kiersten White’s ability to mold Frankenstein and reshape it into an even more disturbing tale with a female protagonist whose life revolves around Victor Frankenstein and their reliance on each other encompasses the Gothic tone that is associated with all re-tellings of Shelley’s famous novel isn’t for the faint of heart.
The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein isn’t Kiersten White’s first re-imagining, with her Conqueror’s Saga about a genderbent Vlad Dracul named Lada, which showcased a lot of the infamous impaler’s gruesomest acts, coming to a conclusion earlier this summer. Kiersten White doesn’t shy away from disturbing imagery and showing the depth of vileness that could live within the human mind in her writing, giving her an edge in young adult fantasy that is rarely seen.
Her novel follows Elizabeth Lavenza, a ward of the Frankenstein family who fears that she will be cast aside if she doesn’t remain useful to them. Her life revolves around Victor, who has embodied the very characteristics of a psychopath since his childhood. Growing up alongside Victor, Elizabeth covers up Victor’s atrocious habits and dangerously vile acts, effectively sweeping them under the proverbial rug.
In a way, reading The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein is reminiscent of the first truly horrid event that happened in the first book of the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones, when (spoiler alert!) Bran is tossed out a window. Before that moment, I didn’t realize exactly how brutal the series was going to be. The most visceral of reactions happened: an audible gasp and my hand over my chest with my eyes wide as the realization that the author truly went there.
The entirety of The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein was like that moment for me. If I’d been wearing pearls while reading it, I would have been clutching them with each turn of the page. As the book got deeper and deeper into the psyche of Victor and exactly how disturbing his actions were from the start, it astounded me how dark Kiersten truly went with her re-imagining, and I loved every moment of it.
Kiersten wove a complicated web of deception from the original work, giving more insight into not only the ghastly acts of Victor while creating his monster, but also into the stark reality of the psychological aspects behind not only Victor’s motives, but Elizabeth’s as well.
Set during the Victorian era, the terminology Kiersten uses to describe how people behave psychologically differs greatly from what we use today. Kiersten does an amazing job describing Victor’s psychopathy and Mary’s traumatic bonding with Victor after the abuse of her previous caretakers and her blind eye when it comes to Victor and his motives.
There is no sugar-coating of abuse in The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein. If anything, it puts a spotlight on it, giving the reader the signs of it starkly, which makes it more terrifying as Elizabeth continually tries to cover up for Victor.
Elizabeth has a twisted form of Stockholm Syndrome wherein she doesn’t see how she can survive without Victor and continuously defends him until it is too late and her fate is sealed. Elizabeth believes that she has control of him, that he has empathy and that she could change him, that she loves him despite his detachment from empathy and his continuous heinous acts.
In the end, she realizes that it was an illusion she made for herself, that her survival instinct of staying by Victor’s side and covering the tracks of his nature was her downfall. What starts as her simply trying to find him, to losing everyone else she cared for, Elizabeth goes through a downward spiral wherein not only does she realize that she never had control over Victor, but that he had control over her the entire time.
She believed that Victor cared for her, loved her as she did him, and in a way he believed he did as well. Obsessed to the point of insanity, Victor truly believed that by killing Elizabeth, he could be with her forever.
Unable to see past his obsession with bringing the dead back to life, Victor’s numerous murders throughout the book and the fact that he put Elizabeth in an asylum in a time where women were seen as hysterical displays the lengths that Victor would go through to keep Elizabeth to himself.
The cast of characters and the strong bonds that Elizabeth has with them exacerbates the betrayal she feels as each gruesome reveal unravels and the reader realizes just how disturbingly monstrous Victor truly is in this re-imagining. The heartache of each loss and the sheer hopelessness is palpable and leaves the reader bereft for Elizabeth and her hopes and dreams of her childhood.
The after effect of such a dark book is reminiscent of being in shock. Kiersten White’s grasp on how to capture an audience and keep them on their toes for an entire book is astounding. I feel as though I held my breath for all 300 pages and am still unable to let it out. The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein will continue to haunt me, surely, because I doubt I’ll ever be able to think of Frankenstein without also thinking of this re-imagining at the same time.
Kiersten’s next release is Slayer, which takes place in the universe of Buffy the Vampire Slayer wherein a new slayer is introduced, bringing about a new generation of vampire hunters and watchers. Slayer comes out in January of 2019, and will no doubt bring a darker edge to the world created by Joss Whedon.
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