An American medical student stumbles upon a dark secret in this twist on Frankenstein's story.Against the backdrop of the Boer War, Lizzie, a white girl from New York, moves to England to study at the Ingold Academy of Medicine and Bio-Mechanical Science. Surgeons there are working on a device called a Galvanic Reanimator, with the aim of providing "new and improved" soldiers for Queen Victoria's war effort. Meanwhile, a young med student named Victor Frankenstein, conscious but unable to move and presumed dead, is being turned into a Bio-Mechanical. He slowly regains the use of his limbs and voice as he figures out what's happened to him. Lizzie discovers the still-attractive Victor in a lab with other Bio-Mechanicals, including a hunchback named Igor, and befriends him. This is not a parody of Mary Shelley's classic but a clever new take on its elements in a mystery complete with Victorian writing flourishes and the mild titillation expected from a romance novel. Here the evil scientists are surgeons with an ambitious plot to change the course of politics. There are some holes in the plot, easily glided over by the quick progress of the story and the growing love between Lizzie and Victor.Fans of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles will enjoy this. (Science fiction. 13-17)

In this inventive Victorian-era steampunk tale, loosely based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a female medical student discovers a political coup happening within her school's walls. Elizabeth "Lizzie" Lavenza, the first female student at England's prestigious Academy of Medicine and Bio-Mechanical Science, hopes to follow in her brilliant father's footsteps. Yet being the only female d American ans she is always fighting to prove herself. Though she finds an appealing group of unconventional friends, her outsider status becomes an advantage when she discovers an unusual bio-mechanical: one of the experimental cadavers imbued with a semblance of life, intended to become England's supersoldiers. This bio-mechanical appears self-aware and capable of learning, and Lizzie discovers it was once Victor Frankenstein, a promising medical student whose memories are slowly returning. Both Victor and Lizzie narrate as they piece together what happened and why. Kwitney blends elements of murder mystery, classic science fiction, and gothic romance, all cleverly framed around a Beauty and the Beast take on Frankenstein. After a suitably dramatic climax and romantic denouement, readers will eagerly anticipate the next volume.