Review by Lucy Winbury
Frankenstein Diaries: Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley

Insightful and finely written look into the personal life of Mary Shelley. Well drawn characters and a vibrant exploration of young love in its time. It says it’s about the inspirations for the origin of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein novel, but it is more about the formation of the ideas of a young author and the collection of inspirations that infuse a future life. It is as much about Mary’s search for a connection with her mother who died bringing her into the world, the longing for a parental love she never knew from a hated step-mother, as it is about a competition between two teenage sisters over the attention of a complicated Percy Shelley. It is sweet, funny, sad, and intimate, linking familiar fairy tales with the romantic literature world of the characters, where dreams express the creepy and the lyrical sexual undertones of young awakening. Claire Clairmont stands out especially as a character who has been mostly ignored in the Shelley story. A really good read with surprises and a longing for more. – Goodreads