In honor of Halloween, this week’s Bookshelf features three new books designed to keep you up at night: a historical novel about the creation of “Frankenstein,” an anthology of short dark fiction by Indigenous writers and a murder mystery set in Athens.
The monster within. Mary Shelley created one of the most enduring pieces of gothic literature to grace the English language when she published “Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus” in 1818 and again, with revisions, in 1831. An integral part of our cultural landscape, the novel has spawned literally hundreds of derivations including books, movies, sitcoms, cartoons, comic books, video games, plays and an opera. Some scholars consider it the first entry in the science fiction canon.
The origin story for “Frankenstein” is equally legendary. Two of the greatest writers of the English Romantic period, the libidinous poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, were ensconced in a mansion in Switzerland during the wet, gloomy summer of 1816. They were joined by Mary Godwin, Shelley’s teenaged future wife, and her even younger stepsister Claire, who was Lord Byron’s lover. To entertain themselves, they drank wine, took laudanum and told each other stories. When Lord Byron proposed a competition to see who could tell the scariest tale, Mary won and later turned her story into the novel “Frankenstein.”
Dutch author Anne Eekhout takes the novel’s origin story a step further in her new book “Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein” (HarperVia, $30), translated by Laura Watkinson. Suggesting the concept of Frankenstein was inspired by someone from Mary Shelley’s youth, the novel alternates back and forth between the mansion in Switzerland and events that occurred four years earlier when Mary was sent to live with the Baxter family in Scotland to recover from an illness. There, according to Eekhout’s telling, Mary developed a deep friendship with Isabella Baxter. But their bond was threatened by Isabella’s creepy brother-in-law, Mr. Booth, who seemed to contain something monstrous beneath his surface.
“Just before he disappeared from sight,” Mary observes, “I saw something that made me whimper inside. Mr. Booth was moving on the spot where he stood, with his legs, his arms, and his head, like a snake. He was moving smoothly and purposefully, as if in a lithe and graceful dance, as if he had to rearrange his skin, to slowly cast it off,” Eekhout writes.
Regardless of who or what inspired Shelley’s novel, it’s hard to imagine Halloween without the presence of amateur scientist Victor Frankenstein’s indelible monster.
Indigenous terrors. “Never Whistle at Night” (Vintage Books, $17), an anthology of dark fiction by Indigenous writers, takes its name from the fear shared by many Indigenous peoples that whistling after the sun goes down can conjure evil spirits. It’s an appropriate title for this collection of 26 disturbing stories that blend ancient beliefs and lore with the trappings of modern life.
In “Night in the Chyrsalis” by Tiffany Morris, a Mi’kmaw writer from Nova Scotia, Cece is spending her first night alone in a new rental after having been displaced for the second time in a year by gentrification “renovictions.” Her sleep is repeatedly interrupted by sounds and images and spirits that grow increasingly more threatening. Haunted by “ghosts of future memories” and thoughts “about how her ancestors might have lived on the land before the city stretched and sprawled out over the coastline,” Cece ultimately is reminded of her own role in the displacement of others.
David Heska Wanbli Weiden, a citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, explores the horrors of child sexual abuse in his story “Sundays.” Following the death of his wife Connie, Thomas Nose Bear is plagued by nightmares of the horrors he endured at Holy Reward boarding school as a child. When he learns that the statute of limitations prevents him from pursuing legal recourse against his abuser, he sets out to exact retribution on his own. When resolution comes, it takes a form Thomas could have never seen coming.
Foregoing familiar horror tropes, “Never Whistle at Night” challenges the reader to expect the unexpected.
Whodunit. For those too squeamish for horror, consider Nashville author Laura Nossett’s murder mystery “The Professor” (Flatiron Books, $28.99), coming out Nov. 14. The sequel to Nossett’s debut, “The Resemblance,” finds Marlitt Kaplan no longer on the Athens police force, but her mother convinces her to investigate the death of a UGA student anyway. All signs point to suicide, but campus gossip that the student was having an affair with a professor suggests there’s more to Ethan Haddock’s death than appears on the surface. Not authorized to conduct interviews or access records, Marlitt is forced to infiltrate the victim’s social circle, putting herself in danger, to discover the truth. Told from the perspective of three characters — Marlitt, the victim and the professor — “The Professor” is a slow burn that ratchets up the tension as it draws to a surprising conclusion.
Suzanne Van Atten is a book critic and contributing editor to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She can be contacted at Suzanne.vanatten@ajc.com.
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