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    Hideous Love: The Story of the Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein
    Hideous Love: The Story of the Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein
    Hideous Love: The Story of the Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein
    Audiobook2 hours

    Hideous Love: The Story of the Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein

    Written by Stephanie Hemphill

    Narrated by Michelle Ford

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    From Stephanie Hemphill, author of the Printz Honor winner Your Own, Sylvia and the acclaimed novel Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials, comes the fascinating story of gothic novelist Mary Shelley, most famous for the classic Frankenstein.

    An all-consuming love affair with famed poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, a family torn apart by scandal, a young author on the brink of greatness: Hideous Love is the story of the mastermind behind one of the most iconic figures in all of literature, a monster constructed out of dead bodies and brought to life by the tragic Dr. Frankenstein.

    This luminous verse novel reveals how Mary Shelley became one of the most celebrated authors in history.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 1, 2013
    ISBN9780062284952
    Author

    Stephanie Hemphill

    Stephanie Hemphill is the award-winning author of Hideous Love: The Story of the Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein; Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist; Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book; Sisters of Glass; and Things Left Unsaid: A Novel in Poems. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.

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    Reviews for Hideous Love

    3.5/5

    27 ratings9 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      After reading this novel I feel a little guilty that I've never read the original Frankenstein. Maybe it was the gothic style but I really enjoyed the sense of doom in this semi-autobiographic novel in verse. I did think the plot got really slow toward the end and the average reader might have trouble sticking with it. All holy moly what a cast of characters, I couldn't keep everyone straight. I was super annoyed to realize that added information about each person was at the end of the book. Since this was not at the beginning I just assumed the author wasn't feeling helpful. I had a hard time understanding Mary Shelley's motivations. Her husband was a pretty rotten individual and even after his death she spent more time promoting his work than her own.
    • 5/5
      I wasn’t sure I’d like this book: I don’t know anything about Mary Shelley, I haven’t read Frankenstein, I haven’t read a verse novel I liked. Though it was required for a class, I’m incredibly glad I read this book! It blew me away, and has inspired me to read more about Mary Shelley, as well as finally read Frankenstein. I’ve already recommended it to several people - including you!<
    • 4/5
      A hauntingly lyrical story about the life of Mary Shelley. I had no idea what her life was like before reading this book and I was captivated. The author creates a deeply moving and intimate narrative centered around a diary that the author keeps. The losses she suffered and the unique life she led is worth the price of admission. The prose is crisp, evocative, and wastes not one word. Lovely.
    • 3/5
      I found the life of the protagonist more appealing than the writing of this book. It was a pleasant enough read, although less poetry than choppy prose in short lines.
    • 4/5
      An engrossing, nicely detailed fictionalized verse biography of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.
    • 4/5
      4Q, 4P (my VOYA codes). I gave this novel-in-verse work a 4 for quality as it flows pretty well and makes you feel like it could have actually been written by Mary Shelley, and I gave it a 4 for popularity as I believe many people would like to read this book - even if they aren't normally readers of poetry or novels-in-verse. The book was a great fictionalization of many true events in Mary Shelley's life and I really felt as though I had an inside view into her personal diaries or journals. The book is powerful through its simplicity and it really shows what kind of a person Mary was and the type of tragic life she lived - before and after writing one of literature's most famous books - Frankenstein.
    • 2/5
      I really could not get in to this book. My guess is because I am not really into Frankenstein and historical type fiction
    • 3/5
      Alright. This book is way more than what I thought it be. For sure, I love the writing. But the characters had my stomach in knots.Love: Let me tells you the way this love is hideous. This love is doomed from the start. And iffy guy attracted to a young girl, romance moves fast. Oh and did I mention he is STILL married and has a child on the way while he is pursuing her. Yup.Cause he is. And I knew as soon as she feel for his antics there was no going back. This love isn’t one I enjoyed but really cringed at. There were so many underlying lies and betrayals, yet once she was married to this man she looks the other way. I mean, in this time period you have too. She is woman and women in that time period solely relied on their husbands. But man, I felt sorry for this girl and what she went through.Plot: This story is told in verse form. Like a poem. So it was a quick read for me. Each poem was written beautifully with full detail of what is happening in her life. From her courtship, to marriage, to giving birth, to struggles that any married couple goes through. Still, I think had this girl not been so infatuated with this man, she could of saved herself a lot of heartache.Frankenstein: Because of that heartache, she is fueled to write. And write she does. She creates this magnificent story that goes on to successful. Even more successful than what she every thought.Overall, I enjoyed this story. Though I would of preferred a more detail story rather than verse form. I mean, it does give good detail in verse but I think in a novel form it would have been richer. If you like verse form with plenty of drama, check this book out. Hideous Love is good.
    • 3/5
      I love a good biographical novel. History has so many stories in and of itself, and yet it leaves room for the imagination to conjure its own legends. Mary Shelley, author of FRANKENSTEIN, is a woman that intrigues so many readers, and who clearly inspired Stephanie Hemphill, author of HIDEOUS LOVE.Told in verse, HIDEOUS LOVE begins with an origin story of sorts, with Mary narrating portraits of her family -- her half sisters, her obnoxious Stepmother, her hard-to-impress father. And then she meets Percy Shelley, the poet, and Mary falls so head over heels in love that there's no looking back. Even if it means disgracing her family and being outcast by the ones she loves.Over the span of several years, HIDEOUS LOVE chronicles the passionate and often tumultuous affair between Mary and Shelley, as they travel throughout Europe, become entangled in the affairs of other writers (such as the notorious Lord Byron) and are often accompanied by Jane, Mary's half-sister. Mary's life was wrought with tragedy as much as it was passion, and this novelization of her history is a real page-turner, with intrigue around every corner. This is definitely a book that historical fiction fans and fans of Mary Shelley will enjoy exploring.