A review of "This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein"

I recently received an ARC copy of This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein, by Kenneth Oppel. It was an interesting read (and one I finished fairly quickly), so I've posted my review below. Not too long from now I'll soon be posting about some other projects I've been working on book-wise and painting-wise. Oh, and if anyone has any advice as to why my computer always seems to have to catch up to my typing speed...that would be awesome. It's driving me crazy...*twitch, twitch*

This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein by Kenneth Oppel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book surprised me. When I started it, I wasn't sure how much I was going to like it, because the beginning threw me off. It started off with Victor in a play, only I didn't know it was a play, so I felt mislead into thinking this was going to be an AU (alternate universe) version of the Frankenstein story that would involve fantasy creatures. The switch to reality felt abrupt, and it wouldn't be my first choice for starting a novel. However, from there, things picked up.

I greatly disliked Victor at first, but I became more and more fascinated with his storyline, and found that I was reading very quickly. it only took me a few days to read this because of the fast pacing of the book. I also liked little details in there that helped make the story feel more real, historical details that I knew to be true of the time period; it helped give a grounding to the novel that then made some of the alchemy elements seem that more fantastic and yet real as well. I think it did a good job of putting the reader in the same state of half-belief, half-doubt, that Victor's friends were in.

So the reasons I didn't give it five stars:
The slower beginning
The lack of editing (I know it's because it's an ARC copy, but missing quotation marks often tripped me up when i tried to figure out who was speaking)
The heavy foreshadowing (while I like some foreshadowing, it made the story's ending seem too obvious to me)

The reason I did give it four stars:
The fast pacing of the book
The dark tone
The polished style of the writer
The character development by the end

This was a good novel for adults and YA, but I would be hesitant to recommend it for a much younger crowd since there are some dark moments and some serious topics addressed in the book. Overall, if you're interested in Frankenstein's story, the time period, or adventure stories, I would definitely recommend this book.



View all my reviews