This retelling of Shelley's Frankenstein has lots of angst. I never felt that it got to New Moon levels, but still, there is a lot of angst.
Angst is of course inevitable when the new guy in your life shares so many characteristics with your boyfriend who recently died.
The whole book is told from Emma's perspective. She has been wallowing in grief and her friends and family want her to move on. Then new boy Alex Franks comes into her life. This brings out a lot of feelings she didn't think she would have again, and also brings a whole metric ton of danger in her life.
For the vast majority of the book, it is Emma and Alex and their burgeoning relationship. The last fifth of the book is all action.
I like Emma. She weathers the high school gossip train and is not helpless. I also like Alex. He's had a rough time. His dad's a mad scientist and an all-around a-hole, there's this girl he can't get out of his head, he has memories that aren't his own. That wears on a body. A part of me wishes we got to spend some time in his head instead of Emma's throughout.
I do give credit to the book for having parents who aren't completely clueless and are actually involved in their kid's life. This doesn't always happen in YA.
I also liked Bree, Emma's best friend.
If you have a knee-jerk reaction to high school romance stories, you should probably steer clear. However, if you don't mind some angst and you like retellings, you might want to give this a shot. I always thought Frankenstein's Monster got the shaft. It's kind of nice to read a book where he is the good guy.
[received an ARC]
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