Teen Review: Hideous Love by Stephanie Hemphill

“Hideous Love”

 

Author: Stephanie Hemphill
Publsiher: Harpercollins
Published: October 2013
*Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, Fantasy

 

Synopsis:

An all-consuming love affair with famed poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, a family torn apart by scandal, a young author on the brink of greatness: Hideous Love 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.

This luminous verse novel reveals how Mary Shelley became one of the most celebrated authors in history.

My Review: 

“Hideous Love” by Stephanie Hemphill tells the story of young Mary Shelley, the novelist of the famous Gothic classic “Frankenstein.” The novel chronicles Mary's late teen years, during which she feels she cannot live up to her father's expectations, or her stepmother's constant chiding. From there, readers follow Mary as she begins to fall in love with the poet Percy Shelley, at sixteen years of age, whom she elopes with a few months later, much to the dismay of her family. Travelling across Europe, the magic of first love begins to disappear from Percy and Mary's relationship. Through unfortunate struggles, such as suicides, affairs, and pregnancy problems, Mary's relationship with Percy quickly begins to unravel, until a horrific accident changes Mary's world forever. Readers learn that although Mary's young adult years were filled with hardship, it was also during these years that she developed the strength, determination, and fearlessness that she channelled into writing the well-loved tale of Frankenstein.

 

One of the strengths in Hemphill's novel concerns her character development. The personalities of the primary characters were realistic, and visible. For example, Mary Shelley's character is well developed; her hopes and aspirations, fears and weaknesses described throughout the story. One learns about her fear of letting down her father, her longing for acceptance, and hope to be seen as an equal to her male counter-parts. With information such as this, one begins to see Mary not only as an important figure in literary history, but as a brave, brilliant young woman, who has many of the same dreams and fears as teens today. The same excellent development can be said for Hemphill's other characters, from the moody and often unpredictable personality of Mary's partner, Percy Shelley, to the extreme intelligence and power-loving ways of Lord Bryon. Through the development of her characters, Stephanie Hemphill has managed to bring to life the young, spirited Mary, and her 19^th century friends and family.

 

The novel “Hideous Love” is written in verse format, each line containing only a few words. Many lines in the novel were highlighted with this format, especially those that expressed image and emotion well. The following is an example of such a sentence: “The lake reflects the mountains as the moon reflects the sun, so brilliant in the flashes of night...” However, with the exception of these few sentences, the rest of the novel contained mostly non-lyrical and not particularly poetic sentences. As a result, the novel felt choppy and unnatural, making it difficult to read. The sentences did not flow , and separating the sentences line by line did not make the story more visual, descriptive, and emotional like some stories in verse do, but rather drained it of these. Perhaps with more emotion and imagery the verse format would have worked, but in the case of “Hideous Love” it seemed to only weaken the writing.

 

Overall, I enjoyed Stephanie Hemphill's novel of young romance, horrible tragedy, and tantalizing scandal, which proved to be an interesting read on one of the most celebrated authors in the history of literature.

I rate this book a 7.5/10

 

Happy Reading,

Emily
Teen Book Reviewer