ALA Booklist (Wed Jul 06 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

As he explains in his author's note, Grimly spent four years working on his adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic novel, an endeavor that seems to mirror Victor Frankenstein's desperate quests to create life in the monster and to prevent the monster from taking his own. Grimly, who also illustrated Edgar Allen Poe's Tales of Death and Dementia (2009), does not neglect either the horror elements of Shelley's story nor the science-fiction ones. His striking artwork is an assemblage of genres, a kind of gothic steampunk, full of grinning skulls, odd machines, and characters in corsets or in coats decorated with bones. Befitting its source material, Grimly's creation is a hybrid work, combining elements of graphic and prose novels, and often so much so that it fights any simple classification. He mixes handwritten letters with long sections of illustrated prose and wordless pages of comic art panels that tell the monster's story. The text is, as the cover says, "assembled from the original text by Mary Shelley," but despite that, it reads smoothly, without the abrupt cuts that mar some adaptations. Purists might frown, but the cover alone is sure to catch the eye of budding horror fans who might otherwise pass over the original.

Horn Book (Wed Jul 06 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

This graphic novel adaptation abridges Shelley's tale while staying true to its spirit. The inventive illustrations, in a muted palette punctuated by black, pinks, purples, and bilious green, are a mix of modern, nineteenth-century, and steampunk sensibilities. Grimly makes excellent use of format with dynamic shapes, sizes, and pacing of panels; the epistolary sections have an elegant (if difficult to read) handwritten look.

Kirkus Reviews (Wed Jul 06 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

A slightly abridged graphic version of the classic that will drive off all but the artist's most inveterate fans. Admirers of the original should be warned away by veteran horror artist Bernie Wrightson's introductory comments about Grimly's "wonderfully sly stylization" and the "twinkle" in his artistic eye. Most general readers will founder on the ensuing floods of tiny faux handwritten script that fill the opening 10 pages of stage-setting correspondence (other lengthy letters throughout are presented in similarly hard-to-read typefaces). The few who reach Victor Frankenstein's narrative will find it--lightly pruned and, in places, translated into sequences of largely wordless panels--in blocks of varied length interspersed amid sheaves of cramped illustrations with, overall, a sickly, greenish-yellow cast. The latter feature spidery, often skeletal figures that barrel over rough landscapes in rococo, steampunk-style vehicles when not assuming melodramatic poses. Though the rarely seen monster is a properly hard-to-resolve jumble of massive rage and lank hair, Dr. Frankenstein looks like a decayed Lyle Lovett with high cheekbones and an errant, outsized quiff. His doomed bride, Elizabeth, sports a white lock à la Elsa Lanchester, and decorative grotesqueries range from arrangements of bones and skull-faced flowers to bunnies and clownish caricatures. Grimly plainly worked hard, but, as the title indicates, the result serves his own artistic vision more than Mary Shelley's. (Graphic classic. 14 & up)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Grimly-s fans have been awaiting this reworking of Shelley-s 1818 classic for four years, and they will rejoice in the end result. Spidery ink lines and a palette of jaundiced yellows and faded sepias plumb the darkness of the writer-s imaginings. Frankenstein-s bone-embellished military jacket and pop-star shock of hair turn him into a sort of anachronistic punk scientist, but other elements of the work are more circumspect. Crabbed, tense portraits of Frankenstein-s friends and family combine historical detail with theatrical emotion. The images of the dissections that lead to the monster-s creation dwell on flesh and bone, yet show, for Grimly, a certain restraint. Even more notable is Grimly-s refusal to capitalize on the horror of the iconic scenes for which the movie versions of the story are remembered. The monster-s crimes are shown mostly in b&w thumbnails, as if Grimly were hastening through them to probe more carefully the monster-s self-loathing and Frankenstein-s ruin. Fans will return to these pages obsessively; readers encountering the story for the first time may find Grimly-s images rise to view whenever they think of it. Ages 13-up. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Aug.)-

School Library Journal (Wed Jul 06 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Gr 7 Up-Shelley's Frankenstein can be considered a lot of things; easy reading is not one of them. Grimly's version carefully strips down the original text, keeping only the bare bones of the story, and accompanies it with his comically gothic illustrations. From the Neo-Victorian clothing and emo hairdos to the steampunk backdrop of Victor Frankenstein's lab, Grimly's unique and twisted style blends perfectly with the material and breathes new life into these characters and situations. This graphic-novel format works exceptionally well during moments of dialogue, as readers can really see a range of emotions that would otherwise be lost through Shelley's dense language. Scenes that especially stand out have little or none of the borrowed text at all, relying only on the art to masterfully tell the story. However, some scenes are better fleshed out than others; it can be frustrating when large, unbroken paragraphs of Shelley's prose are presented with only one or two large drawings, and hardly anything is done with the various letters throughout the book. This can throw off the overall flow, but scenes involving Frankenstein's monster are fast paced, well executed, and help to restore the balance. Even with the adapted text and illustrations, this may still be a difficult read for some readers, but Grimly's beautiful and trim version is a great way to immerse a new audience in this important work. Peter Blenski, Greenfield Public Library, WI