This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee

This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee

My Rating: ★★★★

In the early 1800s, people living with clockwork parts are shunned by society and forced to scrounge to make a living unless they live in a clockwork friendly area. Shadow Boys, a cross between a mechanic and a medic, are the only ones who treat and care for these people. They too are shunned and do their work in hiding because society views them as just as bad as the people they help. Alasdair is a Shadow Boy who works with his father and has been hiding a huge secret: he brought his brother back from the dead. Alasdair is barely keeping his life together when someone anonymously publishes Frankenstein, which eerily resembles him and his brother while painting them both in a dark light, breaking all hell loose.

I love that this retelling brings the story to life by working Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in as character who is inspired to write Frankenstein because of a major event that takes place in the book. Mary's a side character who is central to the plot because she was once a close friend of Alasdair and his brother, Oliver. It's such a neat touch that truly makes the story seem like we're taking a peek into "true" events that inspired Mary's famous novel. The trio's friendship as well as her part in helping Alasdair bringing the late Oliver back to life is truly a genius idea that sucked me further into the story. I love little touches like this. It's like Mary has an expanded cameo in the retelling of her own novel.

The novel follows Alasdair, who is struggling to live with himself after a terrible accident resulting in his brother and best friend's death. On top of things, he decided to bring him back from the dead using his knowledge as a Shadow Boy and the research of his idle, a big name Shadow Boy and scientist. The entire story is told through Alasdair's perspective, but he and most of the characters we see often are well developed. We learn a lot about Oliver's former life and how he's changed in personality as well as physical appearance since he was reanimated. One of my favorite characters in the novel is Clemence, who is a young woman that Alasdair meets during his travels. She's smart, on her toes, says what she thinks, and develops a meaningful friendship with Alasdair. I would've loved to have seen more of her throughout the story, but I'm happy with where Lee went with her character.

All in all, this is an excellent story that brings steampunk, science fiction, historical fiction and a sprinkle of non-fiction characters together to tell a compelling story. It draws from the original material and incorporates it in a way that makes the two work like two stories that were meant to be told together. I highly recommend it.