Suspiciously Specific #9: inspired by Frankenstein
- The Fiction Fox
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
In honour of Halloween, today's Suspiciously-Specific micro-trope that I love is all about books inspired by Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I've talked about this classic multiple times on here, as I have a strange relationship with the novel itself. Although I don't particularly love the original text, I adore everything it stands for as a part of the literary canon. I love the themes, the histy behind its creation and the legacy it inspired. It's not a surprise then, that I'm a sucker for any modern fiction that takes inspiration from this classic.
If you too are feeling extra monstrous this season; consider these books for your Halloween-night-read.
Genre: historical, literary, gothic fiction
Pagecount: 400 pages
"What if Frankenstein's great-niece found her uncles journals and built upon his ideas with scientific plans of her own?"
A "spiritual sequel" to the original, in which Victor Frankenstein great-niece, inspired by her uncle, undertakes a scientific project of her own. Not with a human body however, but with an entirely new (or should I say “ancient”?) creature of her own...
This is perhaps my favourite out of all of these, for its beautiful exploration of themes of disability and body, the position of women in academia, queer love and otherness, and more.
Genre: science fiction, literary
Pagecount: 352 pages
"What if Victor Frankenstein were a grieving widow virologist in modern day London?"
In the wake of a Zombie-virus-pandemic, we follow virologist Kesta Shelley working on the frontline in the desperate scramble for a cure. To her, this race against the clock isn't just a scientific-, but a personal one too. As chained to her radiator behind the closed doors of her home, is her husband - one of the last surviving infected - barely clinging to life.
In her desperation to keep her undead husband "alive", Kesta twists every rule of medical ethics she's been taught, for better or worse.
Genre: magical realism, horror, historical
Pagecount: 384 pages
"What if Victor Frankenstein were a Victorian gay man, who used his skills to create the daughter him and his husband couldn't have out of flowers and mushrooms?"
Two Victorian gentlemen scientist - a botanist and a taxidermist- combine their skills towards a secret project, inside the walls of a secluded botanical garden. They set off to build a living human from body-parts, plants and fungi. A human that will inevitably become more "daughter" than "creation".
Genre: middle-grade fantasy
Pagecount: 208 pages
"What if Frankenstein's creation was two adventurous boys?"
Stitch and his friend Henry Oaf were brought to life by the genius Professor Hardacre. But when his wicked nephew takes over the laboratory, they soon discover that the new professor's sights are set on Henry as his next experiment. Can Stitch and Henry escape his clutches and make their way in a world they were never built for—and that may only ever see them as monsters?
Genre: gothic, novella
Pagecount: 178 pages
"What if Victor Frankenstein continued his work on the remote Orkney Islands, whilst on the run from his creature?"
When a stranger comes ashore to rent an abandoned cottage, Agnes and the other islanders are abuzz with curiosity. Agnes begrudgingly befriends this aristocrat-in-exile; a mercurial scientist who toils night and day on some secret pursuit. His name is Frankenstein and he's come to this remote isle to fulfill a monstrous obligation.
Genre: horror, sci-fi
Pagecount: 296 pages
"What if both doctor Frankenstein ánd his creation were queer "outsiders", just trying to find their place in the world?"
Unwieldly Creatures follows a trio of non-binary, biracial and queer characters - an intern at an embryology lab, a maverick professor of reproductive science, and non-binary person that was "the product" of his creations, only to be abandoned - as they navigate around eachother and the world they all feel they don't quite belong in.
Genre: horror Pagecount: 323 pages
"What if medicine progressed to a point where Frankenstein's experiment seemed completely reasonable in comparison...?"
In a postapocalyptic frozen world, the baron's personal physician dies a horrible death, seemingly by his own hand. The new replacement doctor has one mystery to solve: how the Institute lost track of one of its many bodies. Soon they find themselves up to a foe they didn't expect: a parasite even more devious and cunning than they are themselves...
Genre: science-fiction
Pagecount: 344 pages
"What if Mary Shelley's Frankenstein inspired a tradition of creation and AI in a future timeline?"
A wryly humorous novel told in dual timeline, following the life of Mary Shelley as she created the first fictional image of a "non-human-life-form", contrasted with a future where AI and (sex-)robots now dominate society.
Genre: literary, horror
Pagecount: 336 pages
"What if Frankenstein were a woman grieving her child?"
In an act grief-induced desperation, grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago’s lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience. What grows form the lung isn't quite the son she lost though.
Genre: science-fiction
Pagecount: 264 pages
"What if a modern dr. Frankenstein began their career as "fixing disabilities" and escalated from there?"
The story follows Alma, a Jewish-Mexican woman who's life has changed forever after a car-accident during her teen-years cost a boy his life, and her an arm. With the help of modern science, Alma is given a new hand, but feels forever like a "hybrid being" with it. Years down the line, a series of strange occurances sets her on a trail that maybe science has progressed to the point where it can restore more than just body-parts at this point.
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