Hauntingly atmospheric and rich in psychological depth, Love, Sex & Frankenstein captures the volatile genius of Mary Shelley and the stormy summer that would birth one of literature’s most enduring monsters. Set in 1816 at Villa Diodati, this book takes us into the emotional and creative crucible of Mary’s life with vivid, aching intimacy.

Mary is reeling from grief, jealousy and betrayal. Her relationship with Percy Shelley is unravelled by infidelity, the loss of their child, and the constant, unnerving presence of her stepsister Claire. Geneva offers them refuge, but as thunder cracks above and the volcanic ash dims the summer sun, the real storms rage within the villa’s walls.

Caroline Lea’s prose is evocative, lyrical and utterly immersive. The oppressive weather mirrors the rising tensions among the characters, and every interaction crackles with a mix of passion, resentment and longing. The group’s restlessness finds an outlet in Byron’s challenge to write ghost stories, and from that darkness, Mary’s imagination kindles the first spark of Frankenstein.

This is no dry historical reimagining. Lea breathes life into each figure, giving us complex, flawed, and entirely believable versions of Mary, Shelley, Byron and Claire. The emotional undercurrents are as compelling as the literary history, and the pacing carries the reader effortlessly from tension to revelation.

Beautifully written, sensual and emotionally charged, Love, Sex & Frankenstein is a spellbinding portrait of creativity born from chaos. A must-read for fans of gothic history, feminist reimagining and the secret heartbeats behind iconic stories.

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An enjoyable imagining of the events that led to the writing of Frankenstein. Narrated by Mary Shelley, it charts her state of mind and her relationships with her sister, Percy Shelley, John Polidori and Lord Byron. It evokes the imagery of the year without summer and the violent storms, as the inspiration for the book.

Thank you to Caroline Lea, Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House, and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was spellbinding! Beautiful, haunting, descriptive prose and very good pacing. Each character was fully fleshed out and their behaviour was believable. Excellent characterisation overall.

Love, Sex and Frankenstein tells the story of the birth of one of the greatest novels of all time at Lord Byron's villa on the shores of Lake Geneva and the tangled love affairs between Mary Shelley, her step-sister Claire, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron.

It is obvious the author has done a lot of research and has used some entries from Shelley's diaries, although this lends the story a sense of authenticity it made the first part of the story feel a bit disjointed and I had to keep rereading passages to understand what timeline I was reading about. The author has taken some liberties with the story, which may offend some purists, but as this is a work of fiction I wasn't too bothered about this. The writing is very atmospheric and melodramatic, which felt in keeping with Shelley's work, however the plot is a little uneven and the second half of the book was much better than the first. With the title, Love, sex and Frankenstein, I did find it strange that the writing of Frankenstein was only mentioned at the very end of the novel.

If you liked The Essex Serpent you will enjoy this book.

Thank you to the publishers for my ARC.

I was excited to read this but that excitement didn’t last long unfortunately. I don’t feel like this book really added anything new in terms of perspective or adaptation to Frankenstein. The writing isn’t the best and the story is slow and not very engaging. I struggled to get through it sadly.

In 1816, Mary Shelley leaves for Geneva with her partner Percy Bysshe Shelley, her son William, and her sister Claire, purportedly to join Lord Byron.

What ensues is a painful tangle of love and loyalty set against eerie storms and debauchery. The various love-hate relationships, especially between the sisters and between Mary and Shelley, are frustrating in the circularity. Although perhaps that is the point; there are those we cannot walk away from even though we should.

I thought more of the novel would be about Mary writing Frankenstein but we have to wait almost to the end to move past her emotional agonising and to the true Mary and her inner monster.

Knowing some of the real story, I was also confused by some of the plot. Prepare for historical artistic license which maximises the pain of the love triangles and betrayals.

Fans of this novel will also enjoy Clairmont by Lesley McDowell.

I was really attracted to the premise of this book, but sadly it fell a little short on execution for me. The writing style was oddly detached which made me feel quite removed from the plot and dulled emotional investment, erring rather on the side of 'tell' rather than 'show'. I consequently found I couldn't root for Mary herself, despite being a historical figure who is pretty easy to naturally empathise with in many respects. In part one there is frequent movement between time periods alongside inclusion of extracts from journals etc. which felt jarring and disrupted the flow for me. I also understand the intention in including quotes from Frankenstein at the beginning of the chapters, however this came across a little heavy-handed. It did come across as well researched, and I think perhaps if you are not so familiar with the context behind Shelley writing Frankenstein you may find this interesting.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Lea has obviously done her research and intersperses extracts from Shelley's letters and journals - all the same, this doesn't really manage to breathe new life into the familiar story of the complicated lives of the Shelleys, Byron and Claire Clairmont. The writing style is adequate but not distinctive and the thrust is quite soap opera-ish (though there is that element to the history, to be fair!) - most of all, this simplifies Frankenstein, a book about which a lot has been written and made available for a popular, non-academic audience. I'm not sure what this book is adding.