Who knew that Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, had been a pregnant teenage runaway?

Legend is correct that Mary Shelley began penning Frankenstein as an answer to a dare to write a ghost story. What most people don’t know, however, is that the seeds of her novel had been planted long before that night. By age nineteen, she had been disowned by her family, lived in scandal with a married man, and lost her baby daughter just days after her birth. Mary poured her grief, pain, and passion into the powerful book still revered two hundred years later.

This biography pairs free verse with over three hundred pages of black-and-white watercolor illustrations in a unique and stunning depiction of one of the greatest authors of all time.

“Mary Shelley lives again in this arresting hybrid of a graphic-novel-in-verse, a work drenched in sfumato art and terse, direct language.”

—Gregory Maguire, New York Times–bestselling author of Wicked

“Lita Judge breathes life into Mary Shelley just as Mary Shelley breathed life into Frankenstein’s monster. A remarkable achievement.”

—Karen Hesse, MacArthur Fellow and

Newbery award-winning author of Out of the Dust

“Lita Judge brings Mary Shelley to life in this stunning illustrated novel. With gripping text and heartbreaking images, the story unfolds like a gothic fairy tale—crackling with rage, riven with pain, and pulsing with ferocious beauty.” 

—Laura Ruby, Printz Award–winning author of Bone Gap

“Lita Judge gorgeously entwines sensuous illustration and verse to render Mary Shelley’s vivid, turbulent story as no one else could. Darkly lovely, Mary’s Monster will haunt you.”

—Julie Berry, Printz Honor–winning author of The Passion of Dolssa