Genre: Horror, Historical Fiction, Frankenstein Retelling
Published: Raw Dog Screaming Press, February 2024
My Rating: 4/5 stars
"Death is a promise that cannot be made pretty."
2024 is my unintentional Frankenstein-era, and I’m frankly enjoying myself far to much to be mad about it. It all started back in January when I got an urge to reread some of my horror classics, Frankenstein being one of them. The conclusion was basically; I don’t like the story itself, but I love everything else about it: the themes, the discussions, the adaptations that it spawned etc. That led me down another rabbit-hole, where I began picking up different Frankenstein retellings throughout the year. Highlights included Our Hideous Progeny, Unwieldly Creatures, A Botanical Daughter and now Eynhallow.
Eynhallow teeters on that edge of longer novella/short novel, but packs a huge and gothic punch for its length. Set on the titular island at the tail end of the 18th century, we follow the harsh life of young mother Agnes, as she struggles to provide for her family of four kids and an occasionally abusive husband. With only 4 families inhabiting the remote island, everyone knows everyone around here. That is until a stranger comes ashore to rent an abandoned cottage: a young doctor called Frankenstein… Frankenstein offers a wonderful distraction for Agnes from her regular life, and soon she gets entangled in his mission on the island, which is darker than she could’ve suspected.
Steeped in gothic isolation, and the claustrophobic tension of a small town community with an intruder in their midst, the story that McGregor tells is filled with dread, but also a lot of heart and emotion. Themes of bodily ownership, loneliness, societal expectations and feeling like an outcast among your peers, that were present in the original work are explored deeper here. This is the way to do a retelling: honor the original (in this case both in style and substance), whilst building on the foundations it set. Excellent!
My only point of critique would be the ending coming on slightly too fast and abrupt. I would've loved a little bit more time with Agnes and her mind in her "final stage".
Please note that this book contains on-page descriptions of domestic violence in various forms, as well as death of an infant. I’m not typically one for trigger warnings, but these scenes hit quite viscerally home for me, and I feel they might warrant some fair warning.
You can find this book here on Goodreads.
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