I received a review copy audiobook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. It has not affected my opinions.
Genre: Gothic Fantasy
Age Range: MG
Star Rating: 4 stars
Series: standalone
Blurb:
Stitch is not a monster – he’s a creation.
He and his friend Henry Oaf were brought to life by the genius Professor Hardacre, and have spent all their days in a castle deep in the woods, far from humankind. But when the Professor dies and his pompous nephew comes to take over the laboratory, they soon find out that his sights are set not on scientific discovery, but personal glory. And Henry is his next experiment.
Can Stitch and Henry escape his clutches and make their way in a world they were never built for – and may never be ready for them?
Blurb taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
Review:
STITCH is a delightful FRANKENSTEIN-esque retelling about not judging people on their appearance but their deeds.
I loved the references to FRANKENSTEIN, from the making of people to their appearance. Not to mention Stitch (and his friend Alice) helping a blind man and then being chased away when his daughter and husband come and behold them. It’s a really fun way of reinvigorating an old tale and giving it the author’s own spin while having plenty of homages to the original.
(There was also a reference that very much felt like a OF MICE AND MEN reference, which I appreciated.)
With the main character and his friends (one of whom is a person not made from other people, in the book’s parlance!) all not looking “normal” in the eyes of others, the book has a powerful message about not judging others on their appearance. While Stitch, Henry, and Gregory are constructed from parts, and so are less likely to be the sorts of people readers would meet in the everyday, Alice was not made from parts, and so brings an immediacy to the book’s message.
I listened to this book, and I loved the accents Will Watt brought to it. There are some nice nods there too to the original FRANKENSTEIN (such as the Scottish accent, as that book takes part for some chapters up in Scotland) – plus it helped differentiate the characters.
Read my other reviews of books by Pádraig Kenny:
The Monsters of Rookhaven:
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 