Description

From acclaimed author K. Ancrum, on the National Book Award longlist for The Corruption of Hollis Brown, and Lambda Literary Award winner for Icarus, comes a queer romantic horror thriller that is a love letter to Frankenstein about the consequences of our decisions, the legacy of family, and the depths we’ll go to be forgiven.

Victor Frankenstein is a young, wealthy, and brilliant prodigy who wants nothing more than to prove himself and change the world. His plan to right what he feels is wrong with the world? Reanimation of the sick and dying, bringing them back to life. But no one will give him the chance to prove his genius. However, one drunken night a bet is made, one that will cause Victor to do the unspeakable: take a teen boy from a small, neighboring village, and experiment on him under the dark of night. Elias Hilfiker. The boy who would become his monster. His curse. When Elias awakens, his voice is gone, his skin is stitched, scarred, and branded with strange symbols, and he’s abandoned by his loved ones. Meanwhile, Victor embarks on a journey to discover how to reverse the horror he’s unleashed, visiting dark alchemists in lands far and wide, gripped by fear and guilt.

But Victor’s act of resurrection creates a tether to Elias, leaving them feeling each other’s pain, joy, and regret, as the two each seek a way to end the other. As the two bound boys continue to search for answers and forgiveness, vengeance and mercy, the boundaries between what makes a man and what makes a monster will only get more blurred.

Publisher Review

“Both brutal and tender, this raw tale surges with palpable emotion. It’s a weighty, unflinching examination of personhood.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Ripe with poetic metaphors and threaded through with sweetness; a bruising and beautiful reimagining. Hand this to fans of Jenny Lee’s Anna K or Marissa Meyer’s Gilded. – School Library Journal (starred review)

The novel offers…a consistent focus on the two teens’ humanity in all its messiness, mistakes, beauty, and staggering fragility… Ancrum has struck a balance between an adaptation that is both respectfully faithful and entirely her own. – The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)