The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein ~ Kiersten White

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As soon as I read the synopsis for this book, I knew that I needed it in my hands as soon as possible.

Back in 2018, I read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley with my senior english class and really enjoyed the classic. After discovering Kiersten White's retelling one day in Barnes & Noble, I became curious what her story would entail. My first thought was that it would be a simple retelling of the story I already knew but my prediction was only somewhat correct.

Unlike the classic, this book follows Elizabeth Frankenstein who is Victor's only friend and partner. Instead of learning about Victor, we are given insight on the complexities of Elizabeth's mind and how her life's sole purpose became being his loyal companion. Behind her naturally beautiful appearance is a cunning mind that is more in control than a girl should be in her position.

The story begins with Elizabeth missing Victors company while he is away at school. Despite Victor's father telling her that she cannot leave the house to go see him, she leaves with her friend Justine while he is away on a business trip. Elizabeth discovers after arriving to the town that Victor has abandoned his studies and that only a select few have heard from him in the past year. She begins to worry about her beloved Victor and that he might be in trouble and believes it is her responsibility to save him. She eventually finds him, unconscious, at his hidden residence and discovers that his new study could ruin their entire reputation. Elizabeth does what she deems necessary to rescue him and his reputation, but doesn't realize that they are now in more danger than they ever were before.

It took me a very long time to like Elizabeth's character; for me, something about her was just off. It was about the middle of the book when I came around to liking her. I changed my mindset that she is not the character she was in the classic and that expecting her to be will only ruin my experience of reading this completely different novel. I'm thankful that I did this because I enjoyed the story so much more after doing so and it made the ending that much more EPIC.

The fact that this was not a simple retelling of Frankenstein is what made this story. It is a modernized version with many changed aspects which creates an interesting, intriguing and horrific story. Kiersten White created a great retelling of a great classic.

Heartless ~ Marissa Meyer

Rating: ⭐⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

After coming out of a forever long reading slump, Marissa Meyer's Heartless was my resurgence. Once I picked this book off of its residing place on my shelve, it barely left my hands for the next twenty four hours: It was that good.

The story takes place in Wonderland, long before Alice arrives, and follows Catherine who's one dream is to open a bakery with her best friend/maid, Mary Ann. But her parents won't ever let that happen, not when the King has recently taken an interest in her. Before Catherine realizes she has become the sweet treat of the King's eye, she meets the court Joker, Jest. And for the first time feels what she's only ever heard of before: love. She soon realizes that this love won't come easy and that there are many barriers keeping her from truly loving someone, living her dream and discovering her identity.

Personally, I didn't feel like this book started off too terribly slow. Yes, there was a lot of background but it wasn't the tedious kind that makes me feel like putting the book down before really starting it. To make the second part of the story full of action and heart-wrenching moments, the first part had to be dedicated to creating character roots and attachments which eventually left me reaching for tissues.

I'll be honest, before reading I did expect a bit more of a dark aspect including blood and crazy fights but I was not disappointed because I did get a little taste of it.

Marissa Meyer did a phenomenal job retelling how the Queen of Hearts came to be. I was a little doubtful in the beginning; I wasn't sure how a sweet and somewhat dainty character, like Catherine, could become someone as horrid and ruthless as the Queen of Hearts. Well, by the end of book I completely understood. No matter how sad it was to see her that way, she was portrayed and written beautifully and it couldn't have been anymore fitting to how I perceived the Queen of Hearts before reading.

2019 (& Before) Quotes

“I'm not jealous of some skinny ginger. She says ginger like it's a bad thing; I happen to have a special place in my heart for redheads.” ― Isabel Sterling, These Witches Don't Burn

“You mean we could get together, and, like, recreationally make succotash?” ― Rainbow Rowell, Pumpkinheads

“Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.” ― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

“Open your mind; your heart will follow.” ― Patrick Lindsay, Finding Beauty: 170 Ways to Look on the Bright Side

“The right word, uttered at the right time, can change the world.” ― Patrick Lindsay, Finding Beauty: 170 Ways to Look on the Bright Side

“What brings us together will always be more powerful than what keeps us apart.” ― Trista Mateer, Aphrodite Made Me Do It

“I treat my greatest loves like seeds. I put them down and I seldom look back at what has grown behind me.” ― Trista Mateer, Aphrodite Made Me Do It

“I'm trying to remember to make room in my life for the person I am now, not just the people I have been.” ― Trista Mateer, Aphrodite Made Me Do It

“Even a match remembers the moment before it was struck.” ― Trista Mateer, Aphrodite Made Me Do It

“...Perhaps someday they would grow as dragons.” ― Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“You shouldn't do everything you want just because you can.” ― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Gods of Jade and Shadow

“The candle flickered in the wind of the hurricane... Then, the light of one hundred billion stars burned out.” ― Stephen Chbosky, Imaginary Friend

“The whole thing smelled like a thrift shop that had been baked in a low oven and felt like a too-tight and too-long hug by a rejected Muppet.” ― Maureen Johnson, Truly Devious

“I always wanted stories to be real, so I started writing my own.” ― Maureen Johnson, Truly Devious

“Your life isn't about a big break. It's about taking one significant life-transforming step at a time.” ― Oprah Winfrey, The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life's Direction and Purpose

“Every decision, setback, or triumph is an opportunity to identify the seeds of truth that make you the wondrous human being you are.” ― Oprah Winfrey, The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life's Direction and Purpose

“Your life is always speaking to you. It speaks in whispers, guiding you to your next right step.” ― Oprah Winfrey, The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life's Direction and Purpose

“I just hope, that somewhere, in some thread of time, you're doing okay.” ― R.H. Sin, Empty Bottles Full of Stories

“Know, that the world is hard, that people are soft, and all of us are terribly looking for ways not to shatter.” ― R.H. Sin, Empty Bottles Full of Stories

“I seek the truth we've never been told” ― R.H. Sin, Empty Bottles Full of Stories

“A flower is still a flower . . . no matter what it goes through and no matter where it decides to bloom.” ― R.H. Sin, Empty Bottles Full of Stories

“The past is always growing and time is just another metaphor that represents all the people we've lost.” ― R.H. Sin, Empty Bottles Full of Stories

“I want you to know that your love is a flower waiting to blossom, only to be shared with someone devoted enough to only pick you from a garden where only the truth can grow.” ― R.H. Sin, Empty Bottles Full of Stories

“So, you can hate the heir to the throne all you want, write mean poems about him in your diary, but the minute you see a camera, you act like the sun shines out of his dick, and you make it convincing.” ― Casey McQuiston, Red, White & Royal Blue

“Sometimes you just jump and hope it's not a cliff.” ― Casey McQuiston, Red, White & Royal Blue

“Because horror on Earth is real and it is every day. It is like a flower or like the sun; it cannot be contained.”

― Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones

“No one person can satisfy our immense desire for happiness. And it is not fair to attach that hope to any one person. So many relationships have died under the weight of this misplaced expectation.” ― Matthew Kelly, Resisting Happiness

“Resistance loves keeping us busy with anything but the one thing that will most help us grow.” ― Matthew Kelly, Resisting Happiness

“Wherever you find excellence, you find continuous learning. They go hand in hand. Wherever you find that continuous learning is missing, you find mediocrity.” ― Matthew Kelly, Resisting Happiness

“Some people come into our lives for only a season, but their fingerprints remain all over our lives until the end” ― Matthew Kelly, Resisting Happiness

“We don't get to choose what hurts us”

― Rory Power, Wilder Girls

“The world is a turntable that never stops spinning; as humans we merely choose the tracks we want to sit out and the ones that inspire us to dance.” ― Elizabeth Acevedo, With the Fire on High

“And I know the past isn't a mirror image of the future, but it's a reflection of what can be; and when your first love breaks your heart, the shards of that can draw blood for a long, long time.” ― Elizabeth Acevedo, With the Fire on High

“Like the earth had rebelled from within it's very soul and closed the mountain's ancient mouth”

― Alwyn Hamilton, Rebel of the Sands

“All her life, she had learned that passion, like fire, was a dangerous thing. It so easily went out of control. It scaled walls and jumped over trenches. Sparks leapt like fleas and spread as rapidly; a breeze could carry embers for miles.” ― Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere

“One had followed the rules, and one had not. But the problem with rules... was that they implied a right way and a wrong way to do things. When, in fact, most of the time they were simply ways, none of them quite wrong or quite right, and nothing to tell you for sure what side of the line you stood on.” ― Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere

“Searching for a spark of familiarity in the faces of strangers” ― Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere

“Stars shine brighter in the darkness.” ― Linda Williams Jackson, Midnight Without a Moon

“Rosa Lee," he said, "with the privilege to vote—to choose—we can change things.” ― Linda Williams Jackson, Midnight Without a Moon

“Magicians needed sorrow. And deep sorrow existed only because of love.” ― Gita Trelease, Enchantée

“Remember – magic is a cheater’s game, and everyone who sees it wants to play.” ― Gita Trelease, Enchantée

“To try is to be brave. Be brave.” ― Gita Trelease, Enchantée

“Etiquette was just as exhausting as magic.” ― Gita Trelease, Enchantée

“You have me. Until the last star in the galaxy dies, you have me.” ― Amie Kaufman, Illuminae

“You deserve every star in the galaxy laid out at your feet and a thousand diamonds in your hair. You deserve someone who'll run with you as far and as fast as you want to. Holding your hand, not holding you back.” ― Jay Kristoff, Illuminae

“Am I not merciful?” ― Jay Kristoff, Illuminae

“He presses the triggers. And like roses in his hands, death blooms.” ― Jay Kristoff, Illuminae

“Miracles are statistical improbabilities. And fate is an illusion humanity uses to comfort itself in the dark. There are no absolutes in life, save death.” ― Amie Kaufman, Illuminae

“What you do when stuff like this happens is you LIVE, you survive it, that's how you honour the ones you lost.” ― Amie Kaufman, Illuminae

“Numbers do not feel. Do not bleed or weep or hope. They do not know bravery or sacrifice. Love and allegiance. At the very apex of callousness, you will find only ones and zeros.” ― Amie Kaufman, Illuminae

“You be the push that makes them move.” ― Jay Kristoff, Illuminae

“It was a Monday and they walked on a tightrope to the sun.”

― Marcus Zusak, The Book Thief

“I wish I could put it back together again. Not as it was before- that is of course impossible. But enough to see it, truly see it, as it once was.” ― Claudia Gray, A Million Worlds with You

“Maybe a soul can be broken, just like a destiny.” ― Claudia Gray, A Million Worlds with You

“Those first seconds of silence echo with all the memories we've shared, all the memories we should've gone on to experience together.” ― Claudia Gray, A Million Worlds with You

“Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.”

― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“And when enough people are quiet for long enough, a handful of voices can give the impression that everyone is screaming.” ― Fredrik Backman, Beartown

“She will never understand how some people can prefer other people to animals.” ― Fredrik Backman, Beartown

“I want things that I can name, and some things that I can’t. I want this one moment to last forever, but I don’t want to miss all the other moments to come. I want our entire future together, but I want it here and now.”

― Nicola Yoon, The Sun is Also a Star

“If the decision you’ve made has brought you closer to humanity, then you’ve done the right thing.” ― Tahereh Mafi, A Very Large Expanse of Sea

“I wondered, for the very first time, if maybe I was doing this whole thing wrong. If maybe I'd allowed myself to be blinded by my own anger to the exclusion of all else. If maybe, just maybe, I'd been so determined not to be stereotyped that I'd begun to stereotype everyone around me.” ― Tahereh Mafi, A Very Large Expanse of Sea

“I mean, I wasn't fine. I would be fine. But I wasn't there yet.” ― Tahereh Mafi, A Very Large Expanse of Sea

“I was so raw from repeated exposure to cruelty that now even the most minor abrasions left a mark.” ― Tahereh Mafi, A Very Large Expanse of Sea

“Still, we took what we could get. We were wrapped up in each other, feeling happy and sad all at once, pretty much all the time” ― Tahereh Mafi, A Very Large Expanse of Sea

“We accept the love we think we deserve.”

― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“The ocean has a rhythm, but it has no heart.” ― Christina Henry, The Mermaid

“Humans often valued what they should not, she reflected, and most often they did not value what was right before their eyes.” ― Christina Henry, The Mermaid

“The faster she ran, the freer she was, fast and free and far away from everything that hurt.” ― Christina Henry, The Mermaid

“Love does that. It changes you in ways that can't be undone” ― Christina Henry, The Mermaid

“Doing nothing can sometimes be the most effective form of action.”

― Kevin Kwan, Crazy Rich Asians

“Sometimes we were strangers even to ourselves.” ― Kiersten White, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

“Not being blameless is not the same as being guilty.” ― Kiersten White, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

“I wanted more time with the books. I wanted to spend the day in a quiet corner, sitting against a window, lost in words and worlds I had never been given access to.” ― Kiersten White, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

“They had stripped us of everything we were taught made us women, and then told us we were mad.” ― Kiersten White, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

“Lightning clawed across the sky, tracing veins through the clouds and marking the pulse of the universe itself.” ― Kiersten White, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

“A heart, once stolen, can never be taken back.”

― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“But hoping," he said, "is how the impossible can be possible after all.” ― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“It is a dangerous thing to unbelieve something only because it frightens you.” ― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“The easiest way to steal something, is for it to be given willingly.” ― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“Sometimes your heart is the only thing worth listening to.” ― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“When pleased, I beat like a drum. When sad, I break like glass. Once stolen, I can never be taken back. What am I?” ― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“What do we call visible light? We call it color. But the electromagnetic spectrum runs to zero in one direction and infinity in the other, so really, children, mathematically, all of light is invisible.” ― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

“But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life. Don't you do the same?” ― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

“Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.” ― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

“So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?” ― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

“How do you ever know for certain that you are doing the right thing?” ― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

“A real diamond is never perfect.” ― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See