What a book! I loved, loved, loved Love, Sex & Frankenstein, the new historical Gothic novel from Caroline Lea. It’s her take on a real life event that happened in Geneva in 1816; the infamous summer that writer Mary Shelley, her lover the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (plus their baby, William) and her step-sister Claire Clairmont took a trip to Geneva to stay with the famed – and scandalous – poet, Lord Byron.
Opening sentence: At dusk, the sky over Lake Geneva is the colour of blood in a glass of water.
The birth of Frankenstein
The legend goes that one evening in Geneva, they challenged each other to write ghost stories and this is where Mary Shelley got the inspiration for, and started to write, one of the classics of English literature, Frankenstein.
Love, Sex & Frankenstein gives us the point-of-view of 18-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (later Shelley), daughter of renowned writers Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin.
When she is 16, she becomes infatuated by the young (already married) poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley. She becomes his lover, having two of his children by age 18 (her daughter sadly dies as a baby, a tragic echo of her own life as Mary’s mother died when she was a baby).
Plagued by debt in dreary London, Claire suggests Mary and Percy join her on trip to see her lover, Lord Byron, in Geneva. And it’s there that most of the action takes place.
She wishes she didn’t feel so drawn to him, even as he disappoints her, hurts her, betrays her.
The prose in Love, Sex & Frankenstein is just amazing. The way Caroline Lea brings all the characters, and their complex, overlapping relationships, to life was addictive to read.
I felt so strongly for all of these characters, Caroline Lea has imagined the toxic relationship between Mary and Percy so well, as well as framing Mary’s growth and realisation that she is allowed to express rage for all the things that have happened to her.
Increasingly, she is angry, as if something in this house has woken a shadow of herself – a brooding, dreadful twin, which skulks in her wake.
The fact that some of the events in Love, Sex & Frankenstein seem wild but all stem from things that really happened make this an even better read for me. Mary Shelley went through SO MUCH, so much heartbreak, she is such an interesting person. To say she lived several lives would not be an understatement.
Side note: Byron’s physician, Polidori, is also in Geneva (IRL and in this story), to maintain Byron’s drug habit, and he takes part in the ghost story challenge too, writing what is thought of as the first published vampire story, The Vampyre.
This isn’t the first novel I’ve read that’s been inspired by the real-life tale of Mary Shelley, The Villa by Rachel Hawkins is another brilliant read, quite different to this but equally as good.
Love, Sex & Frankenstein is perfectly paced, exquisitely written and grounded in real historical facts – an amazing read. I did read Frankenstein at school and actually still have all my notes about it, after enjoying this book so much, I feel it’s only right that I add Frankenstein to my upcoming TBR list!
- Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC;
- Get your copy of Love, Sex & Frankenstein here;
- Paperback published by Penguin June 2025;
- 385 pages;
- My rating:
