Like I’ve mentioned before, I’m fully back in my Frankenstein obsession. Bring on the del Toro movie! If it’s even half as amazing as it looks, I’m going to lose my mind about it. But that’s a different discussion.

So Make Me a Monster by Kalynn Bayron follows Meka, a teenager whose parents run a funeral home. Meka herself is interested in the work, too, to the point of becoming an official undertaker’s assistant. However, when a tragic accident occurs, and Meka loses someone close to her, everything changes. Her life feels adrift now, as she struggles with what to do now that this person is gone so suddenly. And then there’s the odd things that keep happening around the house: supplies dwindling far faster than they should, strange figures that appear to be following her, and the way that corpses keep moving. Soon, Meka starts to understand that perhaps she doesn’t know everything about life and death, and that she’s in more peril—yet also more powerful—than she ever imagined.

What I appreciate about this book is that it’s very much inspired by Frankenstein, but isn’t a beat-for-beat retelling. That makes this plot interesting on its own, because it’s definitely its own thing, but still honoring the themes and story of the original. And Bayron does a good job of this, because someone who’s never read Frankenstein could still enjoy this.

I also really liked Meka as a protagonist. She’s capable and curious, and yet often a typical teenager, so she feels real and relatable. Her relationship with her boyfriend Noah is super sweet, and I liked seeing a book where the couple is already together at the start of the book, and the plot doesn’t hinge on petty relationship drama. Further, Meka’s relationship with both her parents, especially her mother, is fantastic. These bonds really drive the plot and the character development, and I liked the nuance and affection they had.

And yes, the supernatural elements are numerous and creepy (that scene in the hearse is going to stick with me for a long while, I fear), but where this book really shines is in its examination of grief. How people deal with loss and how we honor our dead are major themes here, and handled very well. It’s not an easy thing to read about sometimes, but I really appreciated the moments where Bayron lingered on these ideas, let the characters sit with these concepts and emotions. I almost wish that we’d had more of that, because this was the best aspect of the book.

That’s not to say that the supernatural elements were bad; they were quite good. There’s a thread of tension woven through the story that keeps you interested, because you know that there are undead beings long before Meka figures it out (the reader has the advantage of having read the book’s description, after all). However, I think some of this part of the plot wasn’t as strong as the themes about loss. For example, the main antagonist is barely alluded to before his arrival in the final climactic confrontation, and his previously vague, mostly unseen presence earlier in the story is really easy to forget about in the midst of everything else happening. And the other bad guys weren’t very interesting or distinct to me.

(Also, I kind of wish that the main antagonist had been anyone else, because I’ve had enough of portraying a Frankenstein’s monster type as a one-note homicidal weirdo who’s embittered by the world. Why do we so often forget that even Mary Shelley gave her creature so much complexity and personality?)

However, in the end, Make Me a Monster is a dark but touching story. Not all of the plot points worked for me, and the pacing was a little inconsistent in places, but the emotional core was strong and the creepy elements sufficiently creepy. The main characters and their relationships were all excellent, though, and this is a decent homage to Frankenstein. This would be a good book for teens this Halloween (or any time of year, if you’re like me).

Make Me a Monster is available now!