For the first time, the untold story of the three women closest to Victor Frankenstein is brought to life in a dark and sweeping reimagining of Frankenstein by the author of The Lost History of Dreams.
The Mother. Caroline Frankenstein will do anything to protect her family against the nightmarish revolutions engulfing 18th-century Europe. In doing so, she creates her own monster in the form of her scientist son, Victor, whose obsession with conquering death leads to forbidden realms.
The Bride. Rescued by Caroline as a four-year-old beggar, angelic Elizabeth Lavenza understands the only way she can repay the Frankensteins is by accepting Victor’s hand in marriage. But when Elizabeth’s heart yearns for someone else, the lives of those she most loves collide with the unnatural creature born of Victor’s profane experiments.
The Servant. After an abusive childhood, otherworldly Justine Moritz is taken in by Caroline to serve the Frankensteins. Justine’s devotion to Caroline and Elizabeth knows no bounds … until a family tragedy changes her irrevocably. Her fate sets her against Victor’s monster, who is desperate for a mate—and desperate to wreak revenge against the Frankensteins.
Stunningly written and exquisitely atmospheric, Unnatural Creatures shocks new life into Mary Shelley’s beloved gothic classic by revealing the feminine side of the tale. You’ll never see Victor Frankenstein and his monster the same way again.
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“Kreinik tells a compelling story with sympathy and just the right touch of horror.”—AudioFile Magazine (Earphones Award Winner)
“Worthy of comparison to Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea . . . Unnatural Creatures is a splendid achievement from a writer at the height of her powers.”—Historical Novels Review (Editors’ Choice)
“This book has it all. Unnatural Creatures is an atmospheric, reimagined classic about the lines we cross for loyalty and love.” — Foreword Reviews
“Waldherr illuminates Shelley’s great work while inventing her own powerfully moving tale. In Waldherr’s exquisite retelling, the women’s stories are layered like three-color screen printing.”—Washington Independent Review of Books
“A thrilling, extraordinary tour de force that imagines new depths to the Frankenstein story.” —Syrie James, USA Today bestselling author of The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen and the Audie award-winning The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte
“Lushly atmospheric and rich with historical authenticity, Unnatural Creatures is a riveting Gothic tale that I devoured in one sitting. Kris Waldherr gives new life to the women of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, both illuminating and honoring their lives as mother, adopted sister, and trusted servant. An inspired reimagining that was impossible to put down.” –Mimi Matthews, USA Today bestselling author of The Siren of Sussex
“This is the feminist reimagining of Frankenstein you didn’t know you needed. Waldherr reanimates the story from the perspective of its three central female characters—Caroline Frankenstein, Elizabeth Lavenza, and Justine Moritz—creating a tribute to the strength and resilience of women that would make Mary Shelley proud.” —Clarissa Harwood, author of The Curse of Morton Abbey and Impossible Saints
“In Unnatural Creatures, Kris Waldherr deftly uses the political climate of late 18th-century Geneva to add depth and nuance to one of literature’s best-known stories of one man’s folly, but it is her choice of protagonists—the three women closest to Victor Frankenstein—that truly elevates her work. Waldherr takes her main characters out of the mire of victimhood and gives them voices of their own. Idealized by Mary Shelley’s eponymous protagonist, in Waldherr’s telling each woman becomes a complicated human being, each strong in her own way, each full of passions and neuroses, morbid fascinations and love in all its forms. These characters wrestle with big questions of fate and self-determination; of responsibility and victimhood; of the female power to give life and the power of science to emulate it. With settings so lush you can practically see, smell, and touch them, Unnatural Creatures, like the novel that inspired it, is a richly atmospheric work of Gothic wonder.”—Molly Greeley, author of The Heiress: The Revelations of Anne de Bourgh and The Clergyman’s Wife
“In a masterful Gothic rendering, Unnatural Creatures reimagines the classic tale of Frankenstein through the eyes of the story’s hitherto silent women. With its heartbreaking plot twists and stark sense of impending doom, Mary Shelley herself would be deeply moved by this dark tale of revenge and redemption.” —Stephanie Marie Thornton, USA Today bestselling author of And They Called It Camelot
“Eerie, romantic, and exquisitely written, Unnatural Creatures is a brilliant and feminist companion to a classic. Kris Waldherr’s electrifying novel brings the women in Victor Frankenstein’s life to the foreground, reminding us that the most interesting stories are often the ones that go untold.”—Megan Collins, author of The Family Plot
“Luminous, strange, and haunting—Unnatural Creatures is a fitting tribute to Mary Shelley’s masterpiece, written by a true artist who understands that enlightenment can come from darkness. Waldherr’s latest is a rich feast for fans of the gothic novel and for those who like their literature a little eerie, a little unsettling.”—Libbie Grant, bestselling author of The Prophet’s Wife
“Elegantly written and inspired, Waldherr’s latest is a sensuous and empathetic look at the three women who knew Victor Frankenstein best. Fans of the original will find much to love in this fresh imagining of the classic tale. A veritable tour de force!” —Paulette Kennedy, author of Parting the Veil
“In Unnatural Creatures, Waldherr transforms the women of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein from victims into protagonists . . . She sheds new light on one of literature’s most famous stories in an atmospheric novel, which contrasts the unnatural act of Frankenstein’s monster’s animation with the maternal act of creation.” —Finola Austin, author of Bronte’s Mistress
“In Unnatural Creatures, Kris Waldherr gives sparkling voice to the women surrounding Victor Frankenstein and his monstrous creation, and in so doing deftly explores the roles of women as creators, caretakers, lovers, and survivors. Whether you’re a devoted Mary Shelley fan or have never read Frankenstein, don’t miss this masterful retelling. It’s the kind of book that traps you within its pages and won’t let go—as a good gothic novel should!” —Alyssa Palombo, author of The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel
Literary Subrights:
Michelle Brower
Trellis Literary Management
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SOON AFTER MARY SHELLEY’S 1823 return to England from living abroad, she wrote to a friend, “Lo & behold! I found myself famous!” The cause of Shelley’s surprised outburst: her 1818 novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, had been transformed by Richard Brinsley Peake into a rapturously successful London play entitled Presumption, or the Fate of Frankenstein without her knowledge or permission. Luckily for the playwright, Shelley attended the play on the eve of her twenty-sixth birthday and proclaimed herself to be “much amused.”
Luckily for Shelley, the popularity of the play ensured continuing book sales for Frankenstein, which helped to keep her and her son solvent after the drowning death of her husband Percy Shelley a year earlier. Presumption, or the Fate of Frankenstein was soon moved to a larger theater in London to accommodate audience demand. By the end of 1823, it had inspired five different thespian versions of Shelley’s cautionary tale of hubris on other London stages.
While Peake’s play is the first known instance of Frankenstein inspiring a work of art, it was far from the last—and now, over two centuries later, here I am with my own novel inspired by Shelley’s gothic masterpiece.
Unnatural Creatures has incubated inside me ever since my first reading of Frankenstein as a child of twelve. Even now, I can recall how viscerally Frankenstein affected me: the seductive appeal of the creature and his melancholy account of parental abandonment; my shock upon realizing Victor Frankenstein’s wedding night would not go as planned; the tears shed during the creature’s last lament at the conclusion of Shelley’s novel. Since then, I’ve reread Frankenstein more times than I can count, most recently during the writing of Unnatural Creatures, when I visited Geneva, the Mer de Glace, Chêne, Belrive (now known as Belle Rive), Mont Blanc, and the grounds of the Villa Diodati, where Shelley began writing Frankensteinon a stormy night in June 1816 as a result of a literary competition to write a ghost story between herself, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and Dr. John Polidori.
My intent in writing Unnatural Creatures was to reveal the untold stories of the three women closest to Victor Frankenstein—Justine Moritz, Elizabeth Lavenza, and Caroline Frankenstein—while incorporating the historical events that most likely coincided with Shelley’s novel. In this way, I hope Unnatural Creatures might be considered a companion piece to Shelley’s novel in the same manner in which Jo Baker’s Longbourn is to Pride and Prejudice, and Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea to Jane Eyre—novels that offer the other side of the story.
I hope you will enjoy my loving tribute to Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece!
