If you loved Frankenstein, here are five more suggestions of books you might enjoy. Whatever you loved about Frankenstein—the setting, the science, or the horror—we’ve got recommendations for what you should read next.
For the Contemplative Vibes: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Like Frankenstein, The Picture of Dorian Gray has cemented itself into our cultural awareness, so firmly planted that it can be easy to forget why these books became famous. This classic by Oscar Wilde asks questions about life and the creation of art as we meet the book’s vibrant protagonist, yet we know that there is more to him than we first see and even deeper questions we must try to answer.
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For the Experiments Gone Wrong: The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
What happens when we can’t be trusted with our own decisions? Much like the curiosity of Dr. Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s novel, in this novella, Robert Louis Stevenson examines the decisions of a normally-moral man who transforms into something evil.
“It is one thing to mortify curiosity, another to conquer it.”
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For the Unsettling Setting: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
While the characters might be running in the moonlight for different reasons, Wuthering Heights will put you in a similar setting, where old houses and long-living families ponder the meaning of their lives in sad isolation.
“A sorrowful sight I saw: dark night coming down prematurely, and sky and hills mingled in one bitter whirl of wind and suffocating snow.”
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For the Mystery: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
This classic Wilkie Collins novel will draw you into a mystery all its own, told through different narrators, prompted by the sight of a mysterious woman dressed entirely in white.
“It was the last day of July. The long hot summer was drawing to a close; and we, the weary pilgrims of the London pavement, were beginning to think of the cloud-shadows on the corn-fields, and the autumn breezes on the sea-shore.”
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For the Horror: The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells
If you’re looking for the same type of horror you find in Frankenstein, the stomach-clenching anticipation and adrenaline-filled sprint away from darkness, look no further than The Island of Doctor Moreau, the story of a scientist who is shipwrecked, then rescued, and left on an island run by an experimenting madman.
“An animal may be ferocious and cunning enough, but it takes a real man to tell a lie.”
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