I could not put this book down. This is the perfect Frankenstein retelling. There is a creepy/eerie undercurrent throughout the whole story which makes this the perfect fall read. There are also enough twists and turns to make this story unique and to keep you hooked from start to finish. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys retellings from the female perspective and to anyone who enjoys lush/atmospheric/gothic stories.

The author does a wonderful job of creating a companion story that can proudly stand alongside Shelley's Frankenstein. Well-developed characters and a well-designed plot keeps the story moving and the pages turning. The author also did some research and weaves historical events seamlessly into the story. I can definitely recommend this book.

I loved this captivating reimagining of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein! It’s told from the perspective of the three women in Victor Frankenstein’s life. His mother whose passing started his fascination with life & death, his bride who was a ward of the family and their servant Justine. I became so invested in these characters and their outcome that I couldn’t put this book down. The atmosphere that the author created throughout the book was amazing! A foreshadowing of darkness and danger lurking with every turn of the page. It’s heavy with suspense and plot twists that I didn’t see coming. Unnatural Creatures is a perfect read for the upcoming spooky season!

Thank you to Netgalley and Muse Publications LLC for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Kris Waldherr has written a beautifully chilling version of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's
Frankenstein. The matriarch of the family, Caroline, is both benevolent and mysterious, and we meet the family as they take in an abused peasant child. The other characters, adopted child Elizabeth, intense son Victor and youngest child Ernest also figure into the story, but it is the peasant child, Justine, who drives the plot. The locale descriptions are lovely, set in Switzerland and Italy in the days leading up to the French Revolution. The horror is both subtle and sharp. All of the characters have an otherworldly aura, and the reader will have a sense that there is much we will never know about these people. Waldherr wrote the triumphant, atmospheric The Lost History of Dreams. She excels in this genre. I read Unnatural Creatures in one sitting, late into the night.

3.5 stars
If you are a fan of gothic literature in general, or of Frankenstein in particular, you will probably enjoy this book, though it was a bit of an uneven read, in my opinion. I was fully engrossed until, over halfway through, a certain plot twist bounced me out of the story. Also, several plot elements felt overly convenient or explanatory. Still, I did enjoy this. I particularly liked how the author set the stage in terms of the political and social events of the time. It's been a long time since I read Mary Shelley's masterpiece, but I don't recall the original providing as much context. I also thought all of the characters were well drawn, and I enjoyed her fresh take on the eponymous scientist.

Wow! I was initially interested in this title because of the gorgeous cover, but the book also blew me away. This is retelling of Frankenstein from the perspectives of three women in Doctor Frankenstein's life ( his mother, Caroline, his bride, Elizabeth, and his servant, Justine). This retelling brings fresh atmosphere and energy into the classic tale. You don't need to have read the original to enjoy this. Give it a try.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced digital copy.

Imagine a fractured fairytale that twists the ending of a story you've long known, yet stays true to its original essence. Unnatural Creatures is a reimagination of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein that honors the characters, setting, and gothic nature of her work. Kris Waldherr succeeds in developing the Frankenstein women as the focal characters of the novel without diminishing the importance of Victor Frankenstein and his monster. Each of the women, Caroline, Elizabeth and Justine, advance the story from their own perspectives, giving a female (some reviewers have said feminist) narrative to the monster's lore. The writing is absolutely beautiful and the characters truly come alive on the pages. Amidst so much formula fiction, Unnatural Creatures stands alone. It is unique, interesting and highly satisfying. I won't say more because I don't want to ruin it for the next reader. Read this book!

This book is exquisite and I will be recommending it. The atmosphere, the characters, the plot... this author delivers it all!

UNNATURAL CREATURES is a compelling and page-turning companion to Frankenstein that tells us the mirror-image of the story we know, through the eyes of the women torn apart by men's hubris. Elizabeth, Caroline, and Justine are haunted, beautifully imagined characters that crackle with life, and it's infinitely satisfying to read a version of events in which they are transformed from silent victims to clever narrators able to speak for themselves. Fans of feminist retellings and gothic ambiance won't be able to stop reading this. Thanks to the author for sharing an advance copy with me!

Unnatural Creatures by Kris Waldherr is a tour de force that fleshes out the stories of three women in Mary Shelley’s classic novel “Frankenstein”: Victor Frankenstein’s strong-willed mother Caroline; his loving, sensitive fiancé Elizabeth; and perhaps most importantly, the Frankenstein’s servant Justine, a character who Waldherr gives a fascinating background and a whole new lease on life.

It has been years since I read Shelley’s novel. This book can be enjoyed and appreciated without having read “Frankenstein,” but the experience will be immeasurably improved if you read it before or after. It is only because I saw a stage play a few years ago that I had become reacquainted with the beats of the story, which is very different from the way I’d remembered it. Kudos to Waldherr for imagining new depths to the Frankenstein story and bringing it to life in this fascinating tale of adventure, imprisonment, love, hate, devotion, betrayal, art, science, genius, madness, truth, ugliness, joy, terror, light, darkness, life, death, and good vs. evil.

There is a marvelous twist in the tale that I never saw coming and made me gasp (which I’m sure Mary Shelley never envisioned and yet works perfectly with her tale), and I relished the ending. Bravo! This is not a novel for the faint of heart, but for those who enjoy a retake on a classic and are intrepid enough to undergo the harrowing journey, it is highly recommended.

Frankenstein is one of my all time favorite classic reads, so I am always excited to read anything related to that novel! Unnatural Creatures is a perfect companion story for the original story! The writing style is just right to fit along nicely with the original work. The story didn't stray far from the original, but instead followed along nicely so readers could imagine what the women in Victor Frankenstein's life may have going through as he descended into madness. This book has the same macabre, emotional, eery vibe as one would expect from a Frankenstein story!

The book is a great addition to reader's spooky season TBR - once published, it will be a wonderful addition to my personal shelves! I will place it alongside my copies of Frankenstein!

Unnatural Creatures by Kris Waldherr looks at the classic novel of Frankenstein through the eyes of three of the women around Victor and the events that shaped him.
While the original by Mary Wolstencraft Shelley may be familiar the change in perspective presented in this novel allows for a broader view of the original narrative.
Certain aspects of Unnatural Creatures were very engaging however, for some reason, I at times found myself spending time trying to place scenes and events into the context and time frame of the original novel and had to steer myself back to the story at hand.
Victor Frankenstein seemed like a much less sympathetic character in this tale than in the original which I balked at initially, and some of the themes which were present in the original were by necessity changed with the change in the narrative perspective.
Overall I really enjoyed the book and thank #NetGalley, #MuseBooks, and Kris Waldherr for the chance to read the ARC of #UnnaturalCreatures

A perfect Halloween read! Sharing the untold stories of three women whose lives entwined with Victor Frankenstein's, this book perfectly embodies the dark atmosphere of the original. With fully-realized characters who fairly leap off the page, Unnatural Creatures is a book to curl up with under the light of a full moon in the most haunted month of the year.

Chimeras and Consequences

Frankenstein is one of the most emulated, revised, and enduring books of its kind. Unnatural Creatures is inspired by that classic work of gothic horror. Mary Shelley's book, first written as her contribution to an informal contest between friends way back in 1818, was in turn inspired in part by the three books the monster finds: Paradise Lost; Plutarch's Lives; and The Sorrows of Werter.

I never considered how much was happening in the world at that time: revolutions overthrowing monarchs; inventions and processes that transformed industry; discoveries that galvanized medicine. All influenced changing social rules and customs. Rich in historical detail, Unnatural Creatures is faithful to the allegorical spirit of the original, while broadening the scope and deepening the meaning.

Kris Waldherr, while rejuvenating the monster's tale, has brought the era to life as well, and made all that turmoil relevant to the story. Her writing matches Shelley's antiquated, formal style, but is easily understood by the modern reader. Waldherr's versions of Victor Frankenstein's mother, his betrothed, and his mother's attendant are each distinct characters and immensely relatable. As she fleshed them out, the profound influence they had on each other as well as on the fates of the entire family conveys the tragic story to her own poignant culmination.

I'm grateful to the author, Muse Publishing, and NetGalley for a free advance reader's copy of this excellent novel. I was by turns fascinated, horrified, repulsed, left bereft and somehow hopeful. My review is given without obligation: Unnatural Creatures is an excellent read and a completely worthy companion to Mary Shelley's legacy.

A moving and thought-provoking tale of family, loss and loves.

"Unnatural Creatures: A Novel of the Frankenstein Women" does what it says on the tin. It's the story of the three women closest to Baron Victor Frankenstein - his wife Elizabeth, his mother Caroline, and his servant Justine and the events which lead them all to witness Victor's fate are at times chilling, sad, and also uplifting.

The story is strangely compelling, in a way few Gothic novels are. It's probably going to be classified as a "feminist" book, which hopefully will not limit its audience; The author says she wrote this as a companion-piece to the original novel, and as such it does a fine job, giving the reader differing perspectives on the slow descent into oblivion that is Frankenstein's fate. I hesitate to say the reader ought to read Shelley's novel first, but it will put this story into greater focus.

It deals with the issues prevalent in late 18th century Europe - politics, revolution and war, the push to advance science, and the way in which women were viewed. The three women here are all strong in their own ways, but also vulnerable, and their story is overshadowed by a sense of inevitable loss and despair (obviously, given the events of "Frankenstein") .

The writing is fine, evoking a time of feeling of the original novel, and which paints to perfection the time and locations. It's one of those books which invokes images from a VistaVision film.

I was glad to receive a Netgalley ARC for review, but I suspect I'll be picking up a proper copy to enjoy again. Thoroughly recommended.

What a beautiful, Haunting story. I loved this one. I liked this one better than the original Mary Shelley story. I will highly recommend this to everyone.

I was lucky enough to read a pre-publication version of Unnatural Creatures, a rich, suspenseful retelling of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein from the viewpoint of the three women closest to Victor Frankenstein, his mother, his betrothed, and a servant in the household. The novel gripped me from the beginning as author Kris Waldherr brings the times, the women and Victor Frankenstein's madness to life. The truth is that I've never read the original and don't know much more about the book than we all do from films and pop culture. But Kris Waldherr’s beautifully written story brought the times and her characters, including Frankenstein's monster, to life and gripped me from the beginning. A great read.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I loved this novel. Frankenstein is iconic and it's hard to improve upon Mary Shelley's masterpiece, but Kris Waldherr does so with aplomb. Unnatural Creatures dives deeper into the story to reveal the hearts of the Frankenstein women, turning the lens to some of the characters not as well known as Victor and his monster. Waldherr is a master world-builder and one can easily imagine the spooky world of the past that these individuals inhabit. This is gothic-storytelling at its finest--haunting, creepy, darkly romantic, atmospheric, and best of all, lingering. You'll not get this story out of your head and it will sit with you long after that last page has been turned. A must-read.

Unnatural Creatures is an alluring gothic tale inspired by Frankenstein with a lively spin in the form of a feminine reimagining. This book has true to life history with a flourishing aura and is elegantly written. This book was wondrous to read and I definitely recommend it. Thank you for giving me the chance to read this treasure.

I'm delighted to share my latest novel UNNATURAL CREATURES: A Novel of the Frankenstein Women here on NetGalley. UNNATURAL CREATURES has been a true labor of love that's taken me three years to author. My intent in writing it was to reveal the untold stories of the three women closest to Victor Frankenstein—his bride Elizabeth Lavenza, mother Caroline Frankenstein, and servant Justine Moritz—while incorporating the historical events of the era. To add further depth to UNNATURAL CREATURES, I even traveled to the locations where Frankenstein takes place: Geneva, the Mer de Glace, Chêne, Belrive (now known as Belle Rive), and Mont Blanc. I also visited the grounds of the Villa Diodati, where Shelley began writing Frankenstein on a dark and stormy night in June 1816 as a result of a ghost story competition.

Elements of Mary Shelley's life—her experiences with natal loss, her tumultuous relationship with Percy Shelley, her complicated history with her parents—also served to enrich UNNATURAL CREATURES. I particularly believe Mary Shelley's writing of Frankenstein was influenced by the absence of her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, who died days after giving birth to her, as well as the death of Mary Shelley's first child, a daughter born premature in 1815. Soon after, Shelley wrote in her journal of a dream where "my little baby came to life again; that it had only been cold, and that we rubbed it before the fire, and it lived."

Without further ado, I hope readers everywhere will enjoy my loving tribute to Mary Shelley's masterpiece.