The Monster's Wife - by Kate Horsley (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Shortlisted for the Saltire Society SCOTTISH FIRST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2014

Following in the tradition of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea and Valerie Martin's Mary Reilly, THE MONSTER'S WIFE is a literary gothic that re-envisions the classic Mary Shelley novel Frankenstein from the perspective of the girl Victor Frankenstein transformed into a Bride for his monster. To a tiny island in Orkney, peopled by a devout community of twenty, comes Victor Frankenstein, driven there by a Devil's bargain: to make a wife for the Creature who is stalking him across Europe.

In this darkly-wrought answer to Frankenstein, we hear the untold tale of the monster's wife through the perspective of the doctor's housemaid. Oona works below stairs with her best friend May, washing the doctor's linens and keeping the fires lit at the Big House. An orphan whose only legacy is the illness that killed her mother, Oona knows she is doomed. But she is also thirsty for knowledge, determined to know life fully before it slips away. As tensions heighten between Victor and the islanders, Oona becomes the doctor's trusted accomplice, aiding in secret experiments and seeing horrors she sometimes wishes to forget. When May disappears, Oona must face up to growing suspicions about the enigmatic employer to whom she has grown close - but the truth is darker than anything she could imagine.

Review Quotes

"That Mary Shelley has a lot to answer for! This is an extraordinary novel, an honourable response (neither venerating nor sneering) to its progenitor, while being startlingly original. Kate Horsley has grounded and voiced her Frankenstein "sequel" in the Orkneys which bring their own mythic load with them and she takes the Gothic to new places, where the darkness of Frankenstein meets the darkness of isolated communities of love and fear and survival. It is brilliantly weird, dark and "horrid" - and it is a tender account of women's friendships and dreams of freedom. It is profoundly touching and weirdly macabre at the same time. I've never read anything quite like it and I think it is wonderful." - Sara Maitland

"This is a superb debut, an atmospheric and gripping mystery that picks up where the original Frankenstein left off. But to call it a sequel would do it no justice, because this book is fresh and original, and bursting with the most beautiful and lyrical prose. A stunning novel." - KJ Wignall, author of The Mercian Trilogy

"An excellent read for the long dark nights of winter. ★★★★★ Oona makes a magnificent protagonist for modern times; determined, feisty and dogmatic. She exemplifies the troubled teenager struggling to fit into a life where she feels she does not belong and refuses to give up her beliefs. No matter what life and the harsh Orkney weather coupled with her failing health throw at Oona, her stubbornness and sense of integrity force her to carry on seeking to find the truth despite the reactions and treatment of her fellow islanders."- Culturefly, Sue Sheard

About the Author

Born into a family of eccentrics and raised in a haunted house on the outskirts of London, Kate Horsley developed an early interest in the dark side of things. Her first novel, The Monster's Wife, came out with Barbican Press in September 2014 and was shortlisted for the Scottish First Book of the Year Award. Her second novel, The American Girl, is published by William Morrow (US) and HarperCollins (UK) July 2016. Her poems and short fiction have appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies including Best British Crime Stories.