“The preface? Why would he waste time with the preface? Skip the preface and move on to the meat of the thing!”
Kenneth Oppel
I’m deep in the Valley of the Shadow of Finals at the moment, Constant Reader, and so in an attempt to retain my sanity I’ll be doing a series of 50-word reviews for the next couple of days. Because there’s nothing like a new kind of blog post to distract you from all the revision you should be doing.
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This Dark Endeavour, Kenneth Oppel
A prequel to Frankenstein which sees Victor Frankenstein’s twin Konrad fall ill with (probably) leukaemia, prompting a quixotic quest for an alchemical cure, Oppel’s novel, though well-paced, manages to reread Shelley’s complex discussion of scientific progress and unholy creation as a commonplace revenge story about familial love. Meh, but YMMV.
Word count: 50 (I totally meant that to happen.)
The English Student 