The Quick Cut: A girl goes looking for the boy she loves who left home for his studies. Upon finding him, she stumbles into a much darker plot and chaos ensues.
A Real Review:
There's something about reading a bone chilling tale during October that just put me in the perfect mood for Holloween. However, it can be really diffixult nowadays finding the book that balances horror with character development, a driven plot, and beautifully deacribed landscape. This book gets close to the mark with it's twist on the Frankenstein story.
The book is broken up into three parts that each tell a fairly specific piece of the overall story. Part one is about Elizabeth going to find Victor (along with her best friend Justine) in England where he has been studying. Part Two is focused on when everyone returns home to Geneva and ready strikes... causing Elizabeth to feel heartbroken and separated from the rest of those she's known her entire life. Part three is when she leaves Geneva to pursue Victor and (to remain spolier free) the full plot is discovered.
Overall, it's a good book and definitely fit my bill for a Holloween tale. It has that creep factor to it that makes you feel like something dreadful is coming withput quite knowing what is next.
The connection between Elizabeth and Victor is very intense considering they've lived together for so much of their lives due to her parents being gone. However, Elizabeth has lived with this sense of unease and distrust at the floor falling out underneath her. Victor is her entire support and backup plan for if his father (the Judge) would decide not to care for her anymore). So much of this book ends up being about the veil people put on for one another and the deceits that relationships can have. It's very tragic and I couldn't help but feel for Elizabeth as the drama unfolded.
I did have one issue though. Parts Two and three unfolded magnificently, with so much tension and plot that I couldn't stop reading. However, part one felt too slowly paced and really didn't capture my attention. Once I got past it, I was all in on the story and the book though.
With a spine chilling twist on Frankenstein, this one is a perfect read for the fall season.
My rating: 3.5 out of 5