ADAM, MINE.

It’s 1890 in Ingelstad, and university graduation is on the horizon for 17-year-old German aspiring doctor and prodigy Victor Frankenstein.

After drawing an older student’s attention during a classroom debate about the ethics of experimentation on living human subjects, blond, blue-eyed Victor faces a challenge: to bring a person back from the dead. Tired of being underestimated and galvanized by pride and ambition, he accepts. A mysterious alchemical text offers a solution—he just needs a patient. Vulnerable, kind, chronically ill Elias seems like an easy target. But after Victor’s cruel experiment results in Elias’ being disfigured beyond recognition, Victor is forced to confront the consequences of his actions. His mission to reverse the atrocities he perpetrated propels him on a quest for assistance from a network of alchemists scattered across Europe, with sallow, brown-eyed Elias never far behind on his own parallel journey to track Victor down and exact his revenge. But the pair’s unexpected bond, forged by the experiment, is only growing stronger. The vague explanations of scientific and magical elements, lack of development of the many static side characters, and distracting footnotes detract somewhat from the story’s valuable explorations of redemption and revenge. But the succinct chapters and accessible, eloquent prose make for an immersive, fast-paced reading experience.

A tense, atmospheric illustration of the human capacity to be at once inconceivably kind and inexplicably cruel.