February 1, 2018
Gr 9 Up-First-year med student Elizabeth Lavenza never backs down from a challenge; which is probably a good thing, given that she's the first female student admitted to Ingold Academy of Medicine and Bio-Mechanical Science. Lizzie knew it would be a difficult path, but it's only after she's made the trip from America to England that she realizes even the professors want to see her fail. So when she meets one of the mechanized cadavers created by her professors and sees an opportunity to use one of her inventions to help restore his former intelligence, she jumps at the chance to prove her worth. But along with memories of his past as top student Victor Frankenstein come terrifying revelations of his death-and the sinister plot he had uncovered. This steampunk play on Frankenstein, set in the English countryside against the backdrop of the Boer War, explores themes of belonging, sexuality, and what it means to be human. While all of the main characters are white, one of Lizzie's friends in the nursing school is Jamaican and another in the medical school has a disability. The author briefly explores the ways in which these two students, as well as Lizzie and Victor themselves, are treated as outcasts by their peers and society at large. Lizzie and Victor, through whom the story is told, are extremely likable characters, and readers will fall hard for their love story. VERDICT A page-turner from start to finish, fans of Marissa Meyer, Gail Carriger, and Cassandra Clare will find much to love. Highly recommended.-Kaitlin Frick, New York Public Library
Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 15, 2018
An American medical student stumbles upon a dark secret in this twist on Frankenstein's story.Against the backdrop of the Boer War, Lizzie, a white girl from New York, moves to England to study at the Ingold Academy of Medicine and Bio-Mechanical Science. Surgeons there are working on a device called a Galvanic Reanimator, with the aim of providing "new and improved" soldiers for Queen Victoria's war effort. Meanwhile, a young med student named Victor Frankenstein, conscious but unable to move and presumed dead, is being turned into a Bio-Mechanical. He slowly regains the use of his limbs and voice as he figures out what's happened to him. Lizzie discovers the still-attractive Victor in a lab with other Bio-Mechanicals, including a hunchback named Igor, and befriends him. This is not a parody of Mary Shelley's classic but a clever new take on its elements in a mystery complete with Victorian writing flourishes and the mild titillation expected from a romance novel. Here the evil scientists are surgeons with an ambitious plot to change the course of politics. There are some holes in the plot, easily glided over by the quick progress of the story and the growing love between Lizzie and Victor.Fans of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles will enjoy this. (Science fiction. 13-17)
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February 1, 2018
Grades 8-11 In this inventive Victorian-era steampunk tale, loosely based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a female medical student discovers a political coup happening within her school's walls. Elizabeth Lizzie Lavenza, the first female student at England's prestigious Academy of Medicine and Bio-Mechanical Science, hopes to follow in her brilliant father's footsteps. Yet being the only femaleand Americanmeans she is always fighting to prove herself. Though she finds an appealing group of unconventional friends, her outsider status becomes an advantage when she discovers an unusual bio-mechanical: one of the experimental cadavers imbued with a semblance of life, intended to become England's supersoldiers. This bio-mechanical appears self-aware and capable of learning, and Lizzie discovers it was once Victor Frankenstein, a promising medical student whose memories are slowly returning. Both Victor and Lizzie narrate as they piece together what happened and why. Kwitney blends elements of murder mystery, classic science fiction, and gothic romance, all cleverly framed around a Beauty and the Beast take on Frankenstein. After a suitably dramatic climax and romantic denouement, readers will eagerly anticipate the next volume.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)