The DARK DESCENT of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

As a young child, Victor Frankenstein’s mother brought Elizabeth to live with them to be a companion for her young son, who had trouble interacting with other children. Elizabeth’s father, a widow, had been imprisoned a couple of years before and the government confiscated his fortune, leaving Elizabeth, who was living in squalid surroundings with a woman and her four children. Once Elizabeth saw the Frankenstein’s beautiful home, she remembered how she used to live and swore that she would become whatever the Frankenstein family wanted her to be, whatever Victor wanted her to be, and never go back. Because she was rescued by this family and was adopted solely for Victor’s well-being, Elizabeth feels useless and vulnerable without Victor.

The story opens with Elizabeth and Justine Moritz, the family governess, traveling to Ingolstadt to find Victor, who left for university two years earlier and stopped writing the family. She sent a family friend, Henry, to look for him but Henry did not return, so she decided to go herself. Through conversations with Justine, she travels back in time remembering how close she and Victor became and why his parents were so afraid of him – they could not control Victor when he went into a rage and became destructive, but she could.

As Elizabeth travels from place to place in search of Victor, she discovers that he left university to study on his own. Her search finally led her to a bookseller, where she met the bookseller’s niece, Mary Delgado, who told her that her uncle left on a book hunting trip, financed by Victor’s many purchases. Before leaving on his trip her uncle delivered a parcel to Victor’s last address. Mary offered to take them there.

Victor’s building was a large decrepit looking thing. Once inside, Elizabeth found him delirious with fever and collapsed with everything inside shattered. On the upper level she found a large trunk containing all manner of animal and human body parts along with Victor’s journal and also lists of places where he got these supplies and bodies. After they took Victor to a doctor, she decided to return alone to get rid of all evidence of what he was working on, to protect him.

Later that evening, Elizabeth went to the places on Victor’s list and found out that he had been stealing and buying bodies, using Henry’s name. She went back to Victor’s building and set it afire to erase evidence of Victor’s work. As the building burned, something large plunged from the top floor to the river below – she didn’t see what it was.

After Victor comes out of his fever, he tells Elizabeth to return home and he would follow in a month’s time after settling some personal matters. On the way home and also back at the Frankenstein home, Elizabeth feels that she is being watched. A few days before Victor was scheduled to return, Victor’s youngest brother, William, is murdered while out picnicking with the family. Justine, who was not with the family at the time, was blamed for the murder and arrested.

When Victor returns, Elizabeth tells him that she knows that Justine is innocent and also she saw a monstrous thing in the woods – she saw this thing more than once. Victor tried to convince her she was dreaming. However, Elizabeth did look through Victor’s notes and remembered seeing a similar sketch of this creature in them. Victor promised her he would do what he could to prove Justine’s innocence and he also promised to take to court a dictated character statement from Elizabeth.

Victor goes to the court and then returns to tell Elizabeth that is too late. Justine had confessed after being tormented by a court official – she was hanged and Victor told Elizabeth that they burned the body and would not let him have the ashes. Victor then leaves on a trek in the nearby mountain side and Elizabeth follows him, witnessing Victor meeting the creature he created. Victor returns home, packs and leaves immediately. After receiving several letters from him, Elizabeth follows Victor again, in her mind trying to protect him from continuing his experiments and from the creature.

On a remote island, Elizabeth doesn’t just find Victor. She finds Justine’s body in his laboratory and the creature, who she believes is threatening to kill her if Victor doesn’t make a companion for it. She decides to return home to prepare for the creature’s appearance after Victor refuses to help it. She believes the creature intends to kill her as an act of revenge.

On their wedding night, Elizabeth realizes that Victor was the murderer of William, Justine and Henry, using Henry for part of his creature. After confronting him, Victor has her committed to an asylum. Obsessed with Elizabeth, he has plans to kill her and recreate her for himself. He tells her, “You are mine, Elizabeth Lavenza, and nothing can take you from me. Not even death.”

After she escapes, Elizabeth, Mary Delgado (who discovered that Victor had in fact killed her uncle) and the creature joined forces to stop Victor from continuing his work, his killing. They moved further north knowing the he would follow Elizabeth. The novel ends with Elizabeth finally being freed of Victor’s evil obsession with her and her dependence on him.

I left out a lot of details, twists and turns because I don’t want to spoil the read for you. Yeah so, as you read the book, there are many shady characters in the story. It isn’t always clear who the villain is – from previous knowledge of the original novel and the fact that Victor’s creation is monstrous on the eye, you assume it’s the creature. I borrowed the e-book from my local Brooklyn Public Library, through their Libby app – so you can borrow or return without having to physically visit, which turned out to be a godsend during COVID. And cool, the author also tags on the original novel, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, at the end of the book, so you can give it another read to compare it to White’s version. I hope you all get a copy. Have a safe Halloween!