Love & Other Monsters

The forgotten story of a young woman who inspired love, lust, art, and betrayal, from the bestselling author of The Lioness of Boston.

During the dangerous summer storms of 1816, a group of famous young writers gathered at a mansion on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Brilliant Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, her fiery fiancé Percy Shelley, the famously promiscuous Lord Byron, and John Polidori, his sexually tormented personal physician. At the group’s center was Claire Clairmont, Mary’s impressionable, clever, and dangerously loyal stepsister.

Those months of desire and scandal gave the world the works of Frankenstein, the modern vampire, and the mythic image of these Romantic literary giants. In this intense and propulsive story, Claire tries to solve the mystery of why she was all but erased from history.

Fueled by Jane Austen’s romantic novels, and believing love offers freedom, Claire begins an affair with celebrity Lord Byron and convinces Mary and Shelley to follow him to Switzerland. With the threat of paparazzi lurking nearby, Claire’s intimate connection to each member of the celebrity group grows more complex. Their escapade takes a darker turn as each traveler is forced to contend with their own secrets and betrayals.

With searing relevance to our here and now—of celebrity worship, climate disaster, of complicated femininity, Love & Other Monsters is the untold origin story of Frankenstein, a feminist reckoning of sisters, survival, and the creation of monsters—both those on the page and those who walk among us.

INDIE PRESS FICTION BESTSELLER

“Ravishing....Blending history with heart-quickening fiction.” —Shelf Awareness

“Titillating, scintillating...a burning tale of badly behaving literary luminaries that drips with juicy details.” —BookPage

“Luminous and transportive....as singular and lightning charged as the moment that inspired Frankenstein itself.” —Historical Novel Society, Editor’s Choice

“Delicious, spot-on...will delight fans of British period dramas and readers of historical fiction.” —Library Journal, Starred Review

“Will appeal to fans of Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult.” —Booklist, Starred Review

“A fresh perspective on a famous moment in literary history.” —Publishers Weekly

“Transfixing...the book’s sensual, immersive prose balances Claire’s yearnings and frustrations with the brilliance, insecurities, and quirks of her companions.” —Foreword Reviews, Editor’s Choice

“Love & Other Monsters is the reason to read historical fiction: a completely immersive voice and experience, transporting you out of your own time and place, landing you somewhere else entirely. Every time I picked up this book I felt like I was knocking on a door to another world.” —Ben Shattuck, author of The History of Sound

“The author’s lyrical prose...is a devoted restoration of a figure whose presence and contribution were obscured by men’s—and Mary’s—interventions. A satisfying...act of literary reanimation.” —Kirkus

“A rare literary achievement with prose as beautiful as a painting and a story that is propulsively page-turning. I could not put down this thought-provoking, poignant, well-researched yet wholly original novel.” —Jennifer Rosner, author of Once We Were Home

“A gorgeous tour de force. Magnificent and fiercely told. Emily Franklin breathes life into an untold history that feels entirely relevant to our world today.” —Dawn Tripp, author of Jackie

“With Franklin’s gorgeous narrative full of wisdom about womanhood and art, the talents and hopes of Clairmont finally get the attention they deserve.” —Marjan Kamali, author of The Lion Women of Tehran

“Thrilling….Franklin has written a book about a girl on a precipice, and the reader tumbles over it with her.” —Karen E. Bender, author of The Words of Dr. L

“Told with meticulous and immersive historical detail, Franklin delivers a narrative that is both sweeping and intimate, with themes that are all too relevant today.” —Jane Healey, author of The Women of Arlington Hall

“Love & Other Monsters is an intricate and moving story about power dynamics, sisters, celebrity, lust, and the importance of art and storytelling. I loved this book.” —Annie Hartnett, author of The Road to Tender Hearts

“Love & Other Monsters is at once a portrait of a passionate woman hemmed in by her time and place and an encounter with perennial questions: how is the self formed in relationship to others? What must we sacrifice for love? For art? Emily Franklin has written a moving and fascinating book.” —Elizabeth Graver, author of Kantika

“Emily Franklin’s novel is as thrilling and tempestuous as the storm-battered summer that inspired Frankenstein. This is a rich, haunting novel about the monsters among us, the ones we create, and the ones we harbor within ourselves.” —David Lindsay-Abaire, Pulitzer/Tony Award Winning playwright

“In Love & Other Monsters, Emily Franklin masterfully reveals how everyday decisions can morph into monsters. I was hooked from the first witticism on the first page, and readers will find much to cheer, groan, rage, weep, and laugh about in this captivating story.” —Maria Pinto, author of Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless

“A thoroughly researched and intimately written story of sisterhood, celebrity, and obsession.” —Meg Waite Clayton, author of Typewriter Beach