"Are you ever afraid that they cannot survive the things we have done to them in the name of science, and love?" [loc. 2494]
Angelika Frankenstein is quite as brilliant as her more famous brother Victor, but he's engaged to be married, while Angelika's suitors are generally discouraged by her intelligence, or perhaps by her habit of quizzing them from a prepared list of questions. At 24, she's almost given up on the notion of meeting a man she can love, so she takes matters into her own hands. Literally. Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match opens -- after a prologue from the viewpoint of the neglected family seat, Blackthorne Manor -- in the local morgue, where Victor and Angelika are selecting body parts for the men they wish to make. Victor's aim is scientific one-upmanship, but he jokes (rather creepily) with his sister about penis sizes, and demands for his own creation the hands of the handsome cadaver she's selected. Back to the laboratory they go; it is a dark and stormy night; their experiments are successful; Victor's resurrectee takes one look at Angelika and flees screaming into the night; and Angelika's creation ... well, at least one part of him is attracted to her, as evidenced by his instant erection.
Angelika tends her new companion, and attempts to unravel the secrets of his past: he has no recollection of anything before waking in the laboratory to see Angelika leaning over him. He seems, at heart, a gentleman, but he insists that he doesn't and can't love her. Angelika names him Will, because of his strength of character and stoicism in the face of constant pain. She is guiltily aware that the hands once belonging to this body are attached to her brother's nameless creation, who's terrorising the neighbourhood. Angelika's investigations into Will’s past lead her to the local Military Academy, site of a recent tragedy: there she meets handsome and charming Commander Keatings, who makes no secret of his romantic interest in her. Yet it's Will who stars in her fantasies ...
If I'd read this novel with rose-tinted glasses, I'd have liked it a lot more. It's written in a light-hearted and humorous style, and the characters are, at heart, kind, pleasant and well-meaning -- though Angelika in particular is oblivious to the oppression that surrounds and supports her privileged life. But, but, this is a novel about issues of consent: about a man being resurrected to suffer agonising pain, unwanted desire (Angelika's chosen 'second-largest' penis being incompatible with Will's brain and having a will, haha, of its own), dismissal of his religious faith, and the expectation that sooner or later he will succumb to the charms of the woman who's forced all this on him, and who continues to lie to him in the name of 'love'. This to me is a scenario of horror, not of humour.
With my rose-tinted spectacles on, there’s plenty to admire here. Angelika is an intriguing heroine, intelligent and self-aware and in charge of her own sexuality, and confident enough not to care what the villagers think of her wearing trousers: she's sheltered and privileged, but does strive to be better when she realises the extent of the deprivation in the local community. Her friendship with Lizzie is charmingly intimate, and Lizzie herself -- a playwright, of Russian and Spanish heritage -- is a fascinating character. (I'd love to read the story of how she and Victor met and fell in love.) Victor, while not as arrogant as his literary inspiration, is somewhat misogynistic, and he's only too ready to 'promote' Lizzie to Angelika's role of lab assistant without any consultation. His creation, eventually named Adam, turns out to be quite a nice fellow, and there is an amiable pig named Belladonna.
But I'm still disturbed by Will's torment, and by Angelika's overweening selfishness in playing Pygmalion and assembling a sentient being, to her own specification and for her own use, from assorted spare parts.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK publication date (15 SEP 2022). Thanks, too, to the anon reviewer who used the term 'dick'n'mix'.
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