The classic tale of Doctor Frankenstein and his abhorred creation rebirthed in graphic detail.
Doctor Frankenstein, or more familiarly Victor, is obsessed with the thought of ridding the human body ( and race for that matter) of any type of disease. His studies take him to Ingolstadt, where he is able to finally put his sharp mind to task and bring forth his dream of an undying human race. But, tragically, his bright dream turns into the darkest of nightmares when his studies turn him to sparking life into a monstrous patchwork of long dead body parts. Then, in his darkest hour, the Frankenstein monster is born...or reborn... or revived depending on your view.
This monstrosity. NO! This abomination wants only to be accepted and treasured as a creation, much as the human raced is treasured by it's one Creator. However, when this wicked spirit finds that no matter where it turns it will always be turned away...things could get nasty. And, in truth, they do. Watch your back Doctor Victor Frankenstein. Your monster has turned it's yellow eyes on you.
I've read both, the original and the graphic novel version, and I must say that this really enhances my understanding of what was being said in th book. I loved this Graphic version of Mary Shelley's classic. I have not read the Quick Text verison, so I can't say much for it, but I think this will really make a high school class really get into what is being said. Some of the language and phrasing is a bit out dated (at least by some standards) and they think that kids reading a Shelley novel is ridiculous, but this book really bridges the gap. Not to mention that reading a graphic novel is introducing a student to a different mode of expression and creation.
The colors are dark and menacing for the most part, but at times there are bright and exciting pictures. The frames really bring the characters to life without distracting too much from what is being said.
My opinion...Though it lacks all the words of Shelley's novel, it proves to be a very, very close second.
Check out my Book Thief Book Trailer
The Book Thief is about a little girl, Liesel Meminger, and her life through World War II and the Holocaust. Liesel, as far as we know, is not a Jew, but her family is accused of having Communist ties. Her mother took measures into her own and ran with Liesel and Liesel's little brother. Liesel's little brother contracted an illness and died on the way to Molching, a town not far from Munich. There, in Molching, Liesel is given over to a new family and left.
The little girl, now haunted with nightmares of her brother, is shoved into school where she struggled because she cannot read. She had to cope with a new family, new friends, and new enemies. What she didn't know, since she was only a little girl, was that her list of enemies was going to grow from a few schoolyard bullies to Adolf Hitler and his armies.
She also didn't know the kind of trouble she was going to attract. She becomes a book thief, a Jew harborer, a "Jew Lover", and so much more. Liesel was the epitome of Adolf's nightmare (a free thinking, individual, unstoppable person). But will Liesel escape the ravages of war, or will Death (the narrator of her story) finally catch up to her?
I, personally, am not a fan of this book. The author, Markus Zusak, gave too much away for me to really enjoy it. I like books that keep me in suspense. This book didn't. It told you everything significant that was going to happen before you ever discovered it on your own.
Now, there were good points to this book. The writing style, besides his lack of suspense, was very interesting. He really took a child-like manner in describing the weather and the events that happened. It made the world seem both magical and frightening at the same time. Zusak also created some amazing ideas about Death. Some of them are far-fetched, but at least he tried something new.
The characters are okay. None of them really stood out to me. I had some problems remembering that Liesel was a young girl. I kept thinking she was in her upper teens, which she most definitely is not. You learned too much about each character to really need to get to know them. You have no desire to want to see them more if you already know everything about them.
My rating is:
For more of my thoughts, check out my Reading Log
