Review: Hideous Love by Stephanie Hemphill

Title: Hideous Love

Author: Stephanie Hemphill

Pages: 320

Published: 10.01.13

Goodreads Rating: 3.24

My Rating: 4.0

GOODREADS

AMAZON

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:

From award-winning author Stephanie Hemphill comes the fascinating story of Mary Shelley, a brilliant teenager who wrote one of the greatest literary masterpieces of all time: Frankenstein.

An all-consuming love affair.

A family torn apart by scandal.

A young author on the brink of greatness.

Hideous Love is the fascinating story of Gothic novelist Mary Shelley, who as a teen girl fled her restrictive home only to find herself in the shadow of a brilliant but moody boyfriend, famed poet Percy Shelley. It is the story of the mastermind behind one of the most iconic figures in all of literature: a monster constructed out of dead bodies and brought to life by the tragic Dr. Frankenstein.

Mary wrote Frankenstein at the age of nineteen, but inspiration for the monster came from her life-the atmospheric European settings she visited, the dramas swirling around her, and the stimulating philosophical discussions with the greatest minds of the period, like her close friend, Lord Byron.

This luminous verse novel from award-winning author Stephanie Hemphill reveals how Mary Shelley became one of the most celebrated authors in history.

My Review: 
This was another book that I was skeptical to get in to, due to some negative reviews. But once again I was eager to give it a shot and was glad that I did. This was only the second book that I have read that is written in verse. I have to admit that at first it was hard for me to get into the story as I was adapting to the writing style, but once I got through the first 50 pages or so. But once the story took off, I have to admit I was hooked. 

I don't think that this book could have had a better title, because there is no way to describe this beautifully 
gothic story, but to call it "Hideous Love." Everything about the love story behind Mary and Shelley is absolutely heart breaking. From how they met, to the lengths they had to go to be together, to their married life, up to the end. Yes, it does mention how Mary came up with the idea of Frankenstein,and the what she had to over come to get the story published, but what really registered with me was the love story and all the emotions I felt while reading this story.