 | Make me a monster Author: Bayron, Kalynn | |
| Price: $14.99 | ||
Summary:
As a newly certified mortician's assistant at her parents' funeral home, her days are not for the faint of heart. Luckily her boyfriend Noah isn't squeamish, and Meka is finally feeling ready to say the three little words that will change everything. But then tragedy strikes, and Meka's world is torn apart. Nothing makes sense, especially the strange things that start happening.
| Added Entry - Personal Name: | Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (08/01/25)
School Library Journal (+) (12/12/25)
Booklist (09/01/25)
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (00/09/25)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 09/01/2025 Meka’s life is pretty perfect, albeit a bit weird. She has a nice group of friends, an adoring boyfriend who she’s ready to take the next step with, loving parents, and a certificate to be a practicing mortuary assistant. Though the other kids at school find her family’s funeral-home business creepy, she couldn’t care less with the joy she experiences helping people with their mourning (even if, sometimes, children get a little creepy about death). Then, tragedy strikes, and Meka is sure she’ll only ever feel sadness. Unfortunately, she can’t really wallow in her sadness, as she’s followed by strangers and circled by ravens, and mysterious folks keep showing up at her door, harassing her father. When her dad is kidnapped, Meka must reckon with the truth of the car-crash nightmare that haunts her dreams and the familiar figure keeping her safe. Bayron’s latest offers a creative spin on Frankenstein, loaded with a surprising amount of romance. While the story is slow to set up and a little too quick to conclude, fans of reanimated-dead stories will enjoy this one. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.
School Library Journal - 12/12/2025 Gr 9 Up—Bayron's atmospheric Frankenstein retelling strikes the perfect gothic balance between horror and romance. Meka, 17, is used to death, having grown up in her family's funeral home and now working there as a licensed mortician's assistant, helping prepare the bodies of the deceased and assist with funerals. She always looks forward to being in her element with the dead bodies waiting for her when she gets home from school, even if most of her peers think it's weird. But when her loving boyfriend Noah dies suddenly, Meka must grapple with her own grief. It's a complicated enough emotion without ominous flocks of ravens targeting her, nightmares-turned-memories, or the discovery that Noah has come back to life. When a sinister organization becomes convinced that Meka's parents can raise the dead, she'll have to confront everything she knows about death, her family, and herself. Readers of Mary Shelley's classic will find that Bayron has incorporated many nods to Frankenstein with humor and modern twists, creating a story entirely Bayron's own while still rewarding fans of horror canon. The romance shines as Meka and Noah find ways to support and love each other while navigating all the hurdles in their relationship. A tightly woven mystery builds chilling stakes as Bayron piles fears big and small onto characters grappling with mortality, grief, and love. The characters are vividly realized and well developed, even as physical appearances are left up to readers' imaginations. VERDICT This is everything a reader could ask for in a horror romance. A definite purchase for all collections.—Emmy Neal - Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
