Awakening in a castle laboratory, Frankenstein’s monster finds his creator dead amidst the destruction. Looking around the creature has so many questions, but no answers as to how it got there or what it’s future might be. On reflection, it decides that for now it will learn to live it’s own life before anything else. While putting these ideas together, he is disturbed in the castle by a group of soldiers. When they try to detain him, he knows them down and runs away. When more guards arrive on the scene, the monster has fled the castle and seeing the new pursuers heads into a dark forest nearby.

I’m always interested to see new takes on the tale of Frankenstein and his monster as it is one of the most famous and influential stories of all time. This is a short story picking up from one of film adaptations and if you are more familiar with those then the premise of the story will not matter, although it does not follow from the original. The author also make the other classic mistake in their story in that the scientist is called Frankenstein and not the monster, which means Frankenstein is not just a corpse in the laboratory but also running for the woods shortly after.

But this is beside the point and it’s slightly unfair when this gives the author a chance to write their own telling of the story instead. As the story has been retold and shown in multiple mediums, then it is understandable when it starts in a different point. Aside from that the story only takes a few scenes, some of action and some of philosophy, but do pose the reader some interesting questions about what kind of person the monster should be. It also splits the characters neatly between the monster and those who only see him as a monster. The reactions from the guards are obviously hostile and sets up the situation for future stories. The characters are well put together, either coming to terms with what they are or driven to capture the monster they found in the middle of the murder scene. The writing also sets the scenes clearly and shows the characters thoughts and actions instead of just telling the reader what is happening.

The grammar and spelling are fine, and the book is reasonably well-formatted. There is an author’s note at the end giving some background as to why this story was written.

Overall, it’s an interesting spin on the classic tale, even if it does not follow on from the original and perhaps the author can put forward their own thoughts and feelings about one of their favourite books.