Love, Sex & Frankenstein

In the shadowed halls of Villa Diodati, Mary Shelley's fury took shape - and birthed a monster...<BR>LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2026<BR>The thrilling retelling from the author of PRIZE WOMEN, THE METAL HEART and THE GLASS WOMAN. Perfect for fans of The Essex Serpent and The Manningtree Witches.<BR><BR>'Hauntingly beautiful, dangerous and magnificent' Anya Bergman, author of The Witches of Vardo<BR><BR>'A deliciously dark reimagining of the birth of literature's greatest monster' Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters<BR><BR>'Richly woven, gorgeously addictive, this is a true Gothic novel about life, death, desire, fury and passion' Joanne Burn, author of The Bone Hunters<BR>--<BR><BR>Villa Diodati, Lake Geneva, 1816.<BR><BR>The dark summer that birthed a monster . . .<BR><BR>Eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley has fled London with her lover, Percy Shelley, and her sister, Claire.<BR><BR>Tormented by Shelley's betrayals, haunted by the loss of their baby and suspicious of her sister's intentions, Mary seeks sanctuary.<BR><BR>But Lord Byron's villa, lying under ominous, ash-shrouded skies, feels more like a trap.<BR><BR>When Byron suggests each guest write a supernatural tale, Mary is as drawn to the challenge as she is, unexpectedly, to Byron himself.<BR><BR>And so an idea begins to form in her mind . . .<BR><BR>It spills out of her in thick, black ink. A thing given life is before her.<BR><BR>Day and night, she is possessed. Heart and mind. Body and soul.<BR><BR>But is she in control, or is it?<BR><BR>In this hauntingly evocative feminist retelling, Caroline Lea delves into the female rage, creative madness and steamy scandal that bore the world's most famous work of gothic fiction.<BR>-<BR><BR>PRAISE FOR LOVE, SEX & FRANKENSTEIN<BR><BR>'Fury and passion, obsession and revenge sizzle beneath the surface as out-of-this-world prose spins the book to a powerful, sensual grand finale. What a firecracker of a story - it completely swept me off my feet!' Fiza Saeed McLynn, author of The Midnight Carousel<BR><BR>'You cannot help but fall in love with Mary, whose journey as an artist and as a woman is both absolutely heartbreaking and truly inspiring. This is a deeply moving, magical book from a consummate storyteller' Elodie Harper, author of The Wolf Den<BR><BR>'Beautifully written and wonderfully intense, this is no glamorous story of the rock star poets and their female muses but a rendition of absolute powerlessness turned around through sheer force of will' Elizabeth Fremantle, author of Disobedient<BR>