Teen Frankenstein

Shelley’s classic gets a modern makeover in this first book in the High School Horror series. Seventeen-year-old Victoria “Tor” Frankenstein is a science whiz who, along with her best friend Owen, is researching how to revive the dead through electricity. When Tor accidentally hits a teenager with her car and kills him, she seizes the opportunity to put her theories into practice. After succeeding, she names her amnesiac subject Adam and enrolls him at her school to help him assimilate and learn. But Adam’s resurrection leads to social and romantic complications, his condition requires increasingly intensive upkeep, and his unknown past may be linked to a series of gruesome murders around town. While Baker (Alive) draws on the raw material of Shelley’s Frankenstein for inspiration, she deviates considerably from the original plotline and themes—far from a reviled outcast, Adam manifests as a swoon-worthy football star, one even Tor finds hard to resist. Tor’s moral bankruptcy outstrips even that of her namesake, making for a bleak, grisly story with a healthy dose of atmospheric horror. Ages 12–up. (Jan.)