Maybe it could’ve been a little darker and explored certain things more, but I didn’t want to put it down once I started, and that’s always the sign of a good book. Most of all though, this book was gripping. But I had the same fine body, and what mine contained had more grit and determination and passion. I would never have his charm, or grace or patience or effortless skill at things. He had some darkness in him, but he fought against it, and I think his heart was ultimately in the right place. I found myself thinking, “Oh, Victor, no,” more and more frequently. One thing I really thought the author did a great job with was Victor’s feelings toward his twin, how he loved Konrad and couldn’t imagine life without him, but how he also envied him in ways and felt like the inferior twin.Also Victor’s character growth, his spiral into darker thoughts, doing the wrong things, or doing the right things for the wrong reasons. The plot was a bit formulaic with how the characters needed to go on a sort of mini-quest to obtain each of the ingredients they needed to make the Elixir of Life, but each quest was filled with something dangerous or disturbing, and altogether it was well-written and made for a good story.

Having already completed both books in this duology, it’s hard for me to separate the two, but I can safely say I enjoyed this ominous Frankenstein-inspired story.īoth books had this great undercurrent of darkness and ominousness throughout, but the first was the more adventurous of the two.

This dark endeavor