Achievement in a First Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Guernica, Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, as an Audible Original, and in her debut story collection Bad Dolls. She lives in Western New York with her husband and their cat/overlord.
At Electric Lit Harrison tagged seven books that "blend elements of body horror and romance, both conventionally and unconventionally, with beautifully grim and sometimes gruesome results." One title on the list:
Frankenstein by Mary ShelleyRead about the other entries on the list.
“If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear!”
As most of us grow up under the impression that Frankenstein’s monster is a big green oaf with bolts sticking out of its neck, readingMary Shelley’s horror classic for the first time can be jarring. The Creature in the novel is a gentle, intelligent soul trapped in a monstrous form, aware his appearance prohibits the love and connection he craves. The Creature’s dilemma taps into the fear that we won’t be embraced and accepted for who we are because of how we look, that our love won’t be reciprocated because of the superficial. It’s the most obliterating intersection of romance and body horror, where the former can’t exist because of the latter. Reanimation and revenge-plot aside, it’s pretty relatable.
Frankenstein is among Binnie Kirshenbaum's ten top books about vegetarians, Jeff Somers's top ten seemingly unrelated books that complement each other, Olivia Laing's top ten books about loneliness, Helen Humphreys's top ten books on grieving, John Mullan's ten best honeymoons in literature, Adam Roberts's five top science fiction classics and Andrew Crumey's top ten novels that predicted the future.
--Marshal Zeringue