A New Take on a Gothic Classic

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White is a mad scrabble fall into the richly reimagined Gothic world of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Framing Victor’s betrothed as the key figure of a narrative originally disproportionately occupied by brooding men, the story is given fresh life through a feminist lens.

              Contrary to Shelley’s Frankenstein, where Elizabeth acts very much as a submissive, kind-hearted fiancé and is treated less like a woman and more like a bargaining chip in a pissing contest between a monster and its’ maker, this Elizabeth is brimming with a sharp, scathing intellect.

When Victor disappears in Ingolstadt, too troubled by matters of mad genius to bother writing to his family, Elizabeth sets out on a mission to find him and bring him back. Recentering the tragically doomed governess, Justine, as Elizabeth’s confidante and traveling companion, the pair of women grapple with what it means to exist in a world that deprives them of agency and autonomy. Justine’s warm spirit and unflinching faith contrasts against Elizabeth’s darkly manipulative inner monologue creating a friendly, but fraught dynamic that truly encapsulates the essence of a female-centric friendship.

              Where Justine is gentle and dutiful, Elizabeth is a square slab of stone in a soft, round world. Her sharp edges are continually at odds with the perceived manipulations of nearly everyone around her. Everyone except for Victor. In this recounting of one of literature’s most iconic Gothic tales, Victor is far from the tortured, innocent college dropout popularized in Shelley’s Frankenstein. Instead, he is an obsessive, and troublingly emotionless psychopath, whose actions become increasingly deranged as he slips deeper into his self-obsessive need to conquer death.

Elizabeth is Victor’s moral compass. And Victor is her darkest fears and deepest hopes personified. Unable to fix his lack of connection, she settles for fixing herself to fit around the razor edges of his unpredictable, toxic personality. The result is pure Gothic melodrama. Every page is a tightrope of taut pacing, sharp prose, and a plot that subverts everything you thought you knew about Frankenstein. If you’re looking for a spooky, fall read that packs a Gothic punch, then Kiersten White’s The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein is for you.

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein