The Monsters We Deserve

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Pub Date 6 Sep 2018 | Archive Date 19 Sep 2018

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Description

'Do monsters always stay in the book where they were born? Are they content to live out their lives on paper, and never step foot into the real world?'

The Villa Diodati, on the shore of Lake Geneva, 1816: the Year without Summer. As Byron, Polidori, and Mr and Mrs Shelley shelter from the unexpected weather, old ghost stories are read and new ghost stories imagined. Born by the twin brains of the Shelleys is Frankenstein, one of the most influential tales of horror of all time.

In a remote mountain house, high in the French Alps, an author broods on Shelley's creation. Reality and perception merge, fuelled by poisoned thoughts. Humankind makes monsters; but who really creates who? This is a book about reason, the imagination, and the creative act of reading and writing. Marcus Sedgwick's ghostly, menacing novel celebrates the legacy of Mary Shelley's literary debut in its bicentenary year.

'Do monsters always stay in the book where they were born? Are they content to live out their lives on paper, and never step foot into the real world?'

The Villa Diodati, on the shore of Lake...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781788542302
PRICE US$22.95 (USD)
PAGES 240

Average rating from 50 members


Featured Reviews

Well...first I disliked it, then it was vital to finish it, all the while waiting for the monster to pounce. A bit like the central character really. A book about a book, but not just any old book - Mary Shelley's gothic horror and the monster she - or Frankenstein? created. Or did the monster create itself from fertile imaginations in the minds of writers and readers? This is what an author debates as his own horror tales haunt him, as he imagines Mary's tale haunted her.
There are far more questions raised than answered, but as a tribute to the greatest horror story, this is a short, and certainly not sweet, but very compelling read. How much of it is biographical? I suspect Marcus Sedgwick won't want to let on and thus creates his own horror mystery.

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