(no subject)

[skygiants]

This Dark Endeavor is a book about Angsty Teenaged Victor Frankenstein . . . AND HIS TWIN BROTHER. Because what the Frankenstein story really needs is a love triangle between Victor, Elizabeth, and Victor's Good Twin Konrad.

I don't like love triangles. All the same, I knew I was going to deeply enjoy this book when I found out that the first thing we see Angsty Teenaged Victor Frankenstein do is:

- clown around on a balcony over a hundred-foot drop to show off while everyone shouts "VICTOR GET DOWN AND STOP BEING BE A LOSER!"
- immediately falls into the hundred-foot drop, because he's a loser
- get rescued at the last minute by his twin brother
- and then spend the beginning of the next chapter going on about how his ankle is in PAIN and he can't WALK and everyone should be pushing him around in his wheelchair, while everyone else is like "Victor you tool, you didn't even sprain it, STOP WHINING"

Like, whatever else you want to say about Kenneth Oppel and his decision to write the angsty adventures of juvenile Frankenstein, at least he fully understands that Victor Frankenstein is an melodramatic emo failboat! And this is all I actually require in my published Frankenstein fic that I am reading for the lols.

Anyway, then Konrad gets sick with some kind of autoimmune disease and Victor, Elizabeth, and Henry Clerval have to go on some kind of wacky alchemical quest to gather a bunch of McGuffin ingredients to make a magical elixir that will save his life. This leads them to do a bunch of thoroughly plausible things like making WEREWOLF OINTMENT to CLIMB TALL TREES and get attacked by VULTURES, and go SPELUNKING in CAVES and fight GIANT MONSTER FISH.

Henry Clerval, by the way, is clearly the best character here; every time, he's like, "yes, please do enjoy taking wolf ointment and climbing trees in the middle of the night! I will stay down here and write poetry, and, you know, not die." Four for you and your common sense, Henry Clerval.

(Elizabeth, meanwhile, climbs trees, wears trousers, goes spelunking, and bite vultures in the throat with the best of them. ELIZABETH DOES WHAT SHE WANTS.)

In case you were wondering whether anything actually Frankenstein-plot-related happens in this book: nope! It's basically just Those Wacky Frankenstein Kids Have Adventures, albeit overshadowed by inevitable tragic doom. Perhaps the sequel will be more relevant . . .? It's totally about zombie Konrad, anyway, but whether zombie Konrad is in fact the monster is as of yet a mystery to me.

Either way, I WILL TOTALLY READ IT. Judge me if you must! Frankenstein the book and I reached an uneasy toleration for each other after the third or fourth time I had to read it for class, but I still find it deeply frustrating on many levels, and there is a part of my soul that is immeasurably soothed by watching Jackass Baby Frankenstein run around throwing himself into ridiculous MacGuffin quests and making a tool out of himself while his friends and family roll their eyes.

Comments

[hebethen]

LOL! I have fond if vague memories of Kenneth Oppel's bat books from when I was a kid, but I'm not sure how well they'd hold up to reread. Dark Endeavor sounds amusing, if not exactly something I'd pull off the shelf.

Want to talk about your Frankenfeels?

[skygiants]

My problem is I basically just want to PUNCH VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN IN THE FACE ALL THE TIME. ;____; Like, that's for being irresponsible to your creation! And that's for not telling your family that there's someone who would probably like to kill them all and giving them half a chance to take reasonable precautions! And that's for your habit of TERRIBLE EXPOSITION in LETTERS to people who ALREADY KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!

[hebethen]

THAT'S... VERY FAIR.........

[remindmeofthe]

God, this. Last time I had to read this for class I was constantly distracted by my burning need to punch Victor's face off.

[skygiants]

My favorite is still the time I checked a copy out of the library which was full of polite, respectful annotations about Romanticism and nature imagery -- until the point where the Creature starts making the wedding night threats, and Victor is blithely oblivious, at which point the unknown annotator could no longer resist the urge to EXPOSTULATE IN RAGE AT FRANKENSTEIN'S STUPIDITY ALL AROUND THE EDGES OF THE PAGE!!!

. . . and then back to polite annotations about Romanticism . . .

[jinian]

Oh my god, how wonderful.

[kate_nepveu]

This would _almost_ compensate for the hideous crime of writing in library books!

[skygiants]

I actually not-so-secretly love discovering library book annotations. Like, it may be a crime, but . . . it's a crime that fills me with JOY.

[darchildre]

And that is basically why I have never managed to finish reading Frankenstein.

I am an enormous fan of the Boris Karloff films and I keep running into people who are amazed to find out that I've not read the book. But it is so hard to read when you basically want to set the protagonist on fire all the time!

[skygiants]

On the third time around I decided to just blame everything I hated about Frankenstein on Percy Shelley's rewrites, which left me free to continue loving Mary Shelley and respecting her as a founding mother of science fiction, and also free to continue thinking Percy Shelley was a tool, which I already did! :D

[ceitfianna]

Oppel has apparently also written a YA series about airships that I keep meaning to read. I read some reviews of this as it got discussed on various YA blogs, it sounds odd but distracting.

I love when male teenage characters act like the idiots they are. This is why I love Sameth, he's a teenage dweeb, that doesn't happen enough.

[skygiants]

Me too! I mean, I don't love Victor Frankenstein, because he's not just an idiot, he's a tool. But in general I like when authors acknowledge that their characters are terrible, and not in a sexy way!

[ceitfianna]

Yes, one of my favorite moments from all DWJ's books is still Conrad and Millie talking about how awful Christopher is and then how they miss him. It made me go, yes, this is what you do.

I have yet to read Frankenstein, its been on my list forever but he's never been a really appealing character. He seems very driven.

[celestinenox]

I loathe love triangles with every fiber of my being, but otherwise, this sounds absolutely amazicakes.

[skygiants]

The love triangle is pretty egregious, especially since it mostly consists of Elizabeth telling Victor to go away, she is not interested. VICTOR IMPERSONATING YOUR BROTHER TO GO ON A DATE WITH YOUR MUTUAL LOVE INTEREST IS . . . okay, exactly the kind of terrible behavior I would expect from you, but still NOT OKAY.

[celestinenox]

Ugh, I've never read Frankenstein (either I was a terrible student or the college where I received my B.A. in English was just awful), and I pretty much never plan to, but even I now want to start screaming at Victor to STOP BEING A TERRIBLE PERSON.

[skygiants]

This is ALWAYS appropriate response to Victor Frankenstein.

[celestinenox]

VICTOR, STOP BEING A TERRIBLE PERSON.

Hi, Sokka.

[genarti]

HAHAHAHA wow.

I have not read Frankenstein, and based on your reports I don't particularly want to, but this sounds like an excellent way to respect his competence and dignity if you really want to write a prequel about it.

[skygiants]

Oh, friend, YOU DON'T WANT TO READ FRANKENSTEIN. If Marius drove you up a wall . .

[genarti]

I REALLY DO NOT. *laughing*

I mean, possibly there are excerpts I want to hypothetically read! (Possibly not.) But if that dude gets most of the screen time... uh.