Common Sense Media Review
By Mary Eisenhart , based on child development research. How do we rate?
age 14+
Classic of scientist haunted by his creation still timely.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
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Violence & Scariness
a lot
There are of lots of dead bodies and plenty of dread and foreboding, but no gore. All the monster's victims are strangled. But the subject matter is unavoidably horrific. Victor acknowledges torturing animals in the course of his research and building his creation from corpses. Rejected by his creator and other humans, the monster turns to killing innocent people simply because Victor loves them. There is also violence to innocent people at the hands of the justice system.
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Drinking, Drugs & Smoking
a little
At one point in his troubles, Victor mentions that he is taking laudanum in hopes of being able to sleep.
See AlsoBook Review: Frankenstein - Emerging Scholars BlogReview and Synopsis of Mary Shelley's Classic, "Frankenstein"Frankenstein by Mary Shelley [A Review]Book Review---Mary Shelley's FrankensteinDid you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.
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Educational Value
a lot
While Mary Shelley's often overwrought prose doesn't stand the test of time so well, the issues she raises are at least as timely today as they were when she wrote the book. From its impassioned odes to Europe's beauty spots to its hymns to masters of study and scholarship, it offers a fair introduction to Western civilization as it existed at the beginning of the 19th century, and an opening for further study. Perhaps more important, it raises many questions about human nature, what causes people to behave as they do and leads to inexorably terrible consequences.
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Positive Messages
a lot
No sooner has teen Victor Frankenstein animated his creation than he realizes he's made a terrible mistake, the dire consequences of which befall his loved ones for the rest of the book. Whereas few readers in real life are likely to commit his particular error of thinking it's a good idea to confer life on an inanimate being you've assembled from miscellaneous body parts, the larger caution to brilliant young innovators to consider the broader consequences of their inventions is all too timely.
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Positive Role Models
some
Victor is surrounded by the most virtuous and noble of role models, including his parents and beloved "cousin" Elizabeth and good friend Henry, who are not only paragons themselves but never fail to come to his aid. Since he has been brought up surrounded by such values, he is all the more tortured by the horror he has unleashed upon them, and his inability to reveal it, and displays a degree of hand-wringing helplessness and spectacular denial that may seem strange to 21st century sensibilities. While we see many examples of people behaving nobly with regard to each other, including particularly touching examples seen through the monster's eyes, we also see the limits of that nobility -- no human is able to see past the monster's physical ugliness to the inner beauty he has managed to cultivate, even when he performs noble deeds, and all who see him flee or treat him violently.
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Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that the 1818 novel that launched dozens of Hollywood horror movies bears little resemblance to any of them, but is quite creepy enough, flowery prose and all, and, historically speaking, went a long way toward inspiring a genre in which things go very badly for many reels. It's also a mainstay of high school honors literature classes and a good intro to both Gothic literature and science fiction. Its themes of delving into the dark arts will have allure for the Twilight set, while the science project run amok (and the arrogance of its creators) is a subject that remains all too timely. Bigotry alert: One of the subplots involves noble Christian characters who risk all to save a Muslim friend from certain death, and once safe he betrays them to an evil fate.
Where to Read
Parent and Kid Reviews
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- Parents say (3)
- Kids say (17)
age 14+
Based on 3 parent reviews
Ethan R. Adult
May 27, 2021
age 13+
Classic horror story shows truths about humanity
This story is not a jump scare book, but is a horror story more about the premise of the story. There is also depth into the characters and it shows depths into humanity through the character's actions and consequences. A good book, not just as a horror story.
Tom Y. Parent of 10 and 13-year-old
June 9, 2018
age 16+
Nothing Compares
The following saying popped into my head this morning: a picture is worth a thousand words. Later, in my meditation, this idea came to me: A picture may be worth a thousand words--but I say that a mental image is worth a billion pictures (7.6 billion actually). And what’s required for creating that mental image? The masterful use of--Words! .......... Then I started to wonder what work of literature I could apply this new perception to. It didn’t take long for me to land on Frankenstein. Over the decades, how many attempts have people made? To try and capture this magnificent work of art in "pictures?" .......... I had found my first copy at the Avenue Victor Hugo Bookshop on Newbury Street in Boston. It specialized in “eclectic literature of all kinds, the worthy but lost, long out-of-print novels, unusual biographies, and forgotten histories, as well as old periodicals and ephemera" (from their facebook page). I held onto that copy for years before deciding to pick it up one random day, to see what it might contribute to my Boris Karloff understanding of this monster story. .......... To say that it felt like my entire world changed, wouldn’t even scratch the surface of what was true for me. My writing is much too inferior to describe the transformation that took place in my mind, from those cheap images I had held onto for so many years to the masterpiece at my fingertips. .......... Nothing compares to The Author’s depiction. Not that I have seen that many renditions (I think because there are so many awful ones), but the portrayals I have seen do not even come close to how Shelley places us right into Victor’s mind as his “masterpiece” awakens: “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! -- Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath.” .......... The mental image that Shelley goes on to conjure for us is indeed worth a billion pictures--and that mental image can only come through the WORDS of a master artist.
See all 3 parent reviews
What's the Story?
Rescued from an ice floe near the North Pole, a dying Victor Frankenstein tells a British explorer a remarkable tale of his blighted life: After an idyllic childhood as the eldest son of a wealthy Swiss family, he's sent to Ingolstadt to pursue his university studies, where his brilliance and thirst for knowledge soon become apparent. All his skill and energy are soon devoted to his obsessive quest to create life and bestow it on an inanimate being, which he constructs from multiple corpses after many experiments that horrify even him. When he succeeds in animating his creature, he is appalled by what he's done and hides from him; the creature disappears, and only gradually does it become apparent that in creating this being and then rejecting him, Frankenstein has brought about the doom of all those who are dear to him.
Is It Any Good?
Our review:
Parents say (3):
Kids say (17):
From the hindsight of 200 years, there's much to mock in this book, and the prose can be a slog by today's standards. But the story and its philosophical issues are no less compelling today than they were when Mary Shelley wrote FRANKENSTEIN, as evidenced by the fact that they recur in so many books, movies, and TV plots to this day.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Victor as the veritable poster child of the driven, arrogant genius with no thought for the consequences of his grand vision. What similar characters do you see in the world around you? How might he have chosen a wiser path?
One of the book's implicit what-ifs is what would have happened if a single human who saw the monster had been able to see past his physical ugliness to his inner nature; his conversation with the blind man is arguably the book's most poignant moment. Are people doomed to be this prejudiced, and thus doomed to have the victims of their prejudice act out against them?
Mary Shelley, who wrote the book during an idyllic sojourn with the bad boys of Romantic literature, Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, is a subject of interest (and scandal) herself, which may make her interesting to teens. How about learning more about her at the library or online?
This story has launched many versions and sequels. What would yours be?
Book Details
- Author: Mary Shelley
- Genre: Horror
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher:
- Publication date: September 9, 2011
- Number of pages: 208
- Last updated: July 14, 2023
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