Love, Sex & Frankenstein

In the shadowed halls of Villa Diodati, Mary Shelley’s fury took shape – and birthed a monster…

LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2026
The thrilling retelling from the author of PRIZE WOMEN, THE METAL HEART and THE GLASS WOMAN. Perfect for fans of The Essex Serpent and The Manningtree Witches.

‘Hauntingly beautiful, dangerous and magnificent’ Anya Bergman, author of The Witches of Vardo

‘A deliciously dark reimagining of the birth of literature's greatest monster’ Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters

‘Richly woven, gorgeously addictive, this is a true Gothic novel about life, death, desire, fury and passion’ Joanne Burn, author of The Bone Hunters
--

Villa Diodati, Lake Geneva, 1816.

The dark summer that birthed a monster . . .

Eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley has fled London with her lover, Percy Shelley, and her sister, Claire.

Tormented by Shelley’s betrayals, haunted by the loss of their baby and suspicious of her sister’s intentions, Mary seeks sanctuary.

But Lord Byron’s villa, lying under ominous, ash-shrouded skies, feels more like a trap.

When Byron suggests each guest write a supernatural tale, Mary is as drawn to the challenge as she is, unexpectedly, to Byron himself.

And so an idea begins to form in her mind . . .

It spills out of her in thick, black ink. A thing given life is before her.

Day and night, she is possessed. Heart and mind. Body and soul.

But is she in control, or is it?

In this hauntingly evocative feminist retelling, Caroline Lea delves into the female rage, creative madness and steamy scandal that bore the world's most famous work of gothic fiction.
–

PRAISE FOR LOVE, SEX & FRANKENSTEIN

‘Fury and passion, obsession and revenge sizzle beneath the surface as out-of-this-world prose spins the book to a powerful, sensual grand finale. What a firecracker of a story - it completely swept me off my feet!’ Fiza Saeed McLynn, author of The Midnight Carousel

‘You cannot help but fall in love with Mary, whose journey as an artist and as a woman is both absolutely heartbreaking and truly inspiring. This is a deeply moving, magical book from a consummate storyteller’ Elodie Harper, author of The Wolf Den

'Beautifully written and wonderfully intense, this is no glamorous story of the rock star poets and their female muses but a rendition of absolute powerlessness turned around through sheer force of will’ Elizabeth Fremantle, author of Disobedient