Why a sequel to Mary Shelleys Frankenstein?
WL: Well, it’s not really a sequel. It’s not like it picks up where Frankenstein left off or anything like that. The Monster in Mary’s Monster isn’t exactly the same monster we know. Mary Shelley kind of filtered a real story into her book. This is a novel about the product of the real story. Q: But this is a story that everybody knows. WL: Maybe, maybe not. The challenge I felt when I first started this book way back when was that even though I always loved Boris Karloff and the neck bolts and all that stuff, as an adult, the Frankenstein Monster isn’t really scary. The whole appeal when I watch Bride of Frankenstein now is kind of sentimental. It’s like I’m reliving something I experienced as a kid. I wanted to tell a story in the present, with this real person who just happened to be created two hundred years ago in a laboratory. Spending two hundred years as an outcast, that’s got to have an effect on you. I read the original book as a teenager, and I will admit it took me a couple
