Scott Reads It!

Seen at Scott Reads It! I knew I had to read Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters once I saw it. It was being marketed as a sequel to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and I just loved the idea! The problem with Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters is that it is poorily executed and it doesn't live up to it's potential. It's extremely hard to like a book where you dislike all of the characters. Giselle is extremely superficial and too concerned with the way people view her.Does Giselle enjoy being abused? She is hurt by her ex-boyfriend once, and she goes back to him once again. When Giselle is slapped by her ex, it barely bother her at all and she doesn't tell anyone. Ingrid claims to be an "intellect" yet she acts rather foolish. How can you claim to be an intellect yet you don't know that Napoleon has taken over a decent amount of the world? Ingrid was way too concerned with trying to feel smart that she disregards her morals. Why does Ingrid help grave robbers? Giselle and Ingrid didn't act their age and they acted like little kids. Both Giselle and Ingrid seemed to lack any common sense or morals. Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters is a novel with no purpose at all. This book is supposed to be a mystery yet there is really no mystery or intrigue in this book. Suzanne Weyn focuses more on Dr. Frankenstein's daughters and their problems instead of the mystery. You would think that if so many people affiliated with the daughters were dying, there would at least be some significance. All of the deaths don't really have any significance to the story and are pretty trivial. I would have rather read about the daughters trying to solve the mystery of who the murderer was or at least do something about it. There are so many different little plot lines in this book but by the end nothing seems to be resolved. What is the point of having so many plot lines if you don't even bother to nicely resolve everything? When I finished Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters, I was thinking "That's it?" because there were some many questions left unanswered. There has to be a sequel to be coming out because this book didn't have a proper conclusion. You would think a novel about Dr. Frankenstein's kids would involve Frankenstein's monster. Wrong! Frankenstein's monster is barely mentioned throughout the novel and only appears for a short span of time. Weyn also makes one of the most noobish mistakes regarding Frankenstein's monster. She calls the monster Frankenstein, you would think someone writing a novel about Dr. Frankenstein would know better. In Mary Shelly's novel Dr. Frankenstein creates a monster but never bothers to name it. That's why the monster is called Dr. Frankenstein's monster and not Frankenstein. I didn't expect Weyn to make such an amateur mistake. The only thing that I semi-enjoyed was the diary format of the book. Suzanne Weyn wrote this book in the style of Giselle and Ingrid's journals. At first I thought it was a clever device but it soon became very irritating and repetitive. Do people who write journals constantly write dear diary? Every single time I saw "From the diary of Baroness Giselle Frankenstein" I wanted to cringe. The journal entries really didn't add anything insightful to this book at all. There was so many ways Weyn could have cleverly used the journal style to her advantage but Weyn doesn't take advantage of this opportunity. I really didn't enjoy reading Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters at all. It's hard to like a book when you don't even like any of the characters. Giselle and Ingrid acted way too shallow and their attitudes were extremely irritating. Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters is a perfect example of wasted potential, there were so many ways this book could have been fantastic but Weyn doesn't bother to do anything unique. If there is a sequel coming out, I would not even consider reading it! Thank you to Scholastic for providing me with a review copy via mail.