Frankenstein

I'm left mostly feeling confused by this book. Where others find beauty in the elongated descriptions of vistas and apparently-complex emotions, I had to really trudge to get through them. Where others come away believing Frankenstein is “The REAL Monster,” I am left perplexed to his courses of action and effectively saddened at the chain of events that made up the book. While I'm frustrated by The Monster's reactions and actions, I certainly don't think he's wrong on certain points, and find it hard to blame him for his behavior.

Spoiler tag for safe>sorry. The book really picked up for me when Frankenstein and the Monster had an actual conversation and we learned the Monster's story. While I have not consumed the horror movies that have led others to read this book, I still had an idea where it was going, but the most emotion this book got out of me was when Felix encountered the Monster holding on to his father and attacked him, resulting in their leaving their cottage. In this, Monster and Frankenstein had the same problem: why not SPEAK? You could have told Felix you were his ally, doing work to help him and his family. Frankenstein could have TOLD Clerval or Elizabeth about his experimentation resulting in an angry person capable of violence, and might have spared their deaths.

So I guess I'm glad I finished it, mostly for having read Frankenstein, and I can appreciate the humanity and fallibility of the characters, but it just doesn't reign among my favorite books I've ever read.