I have been on a bit of a horror binge (and I rarely read horror) starting with Kris Waldheer’s retelling of Frankenstein, Unnatural Creatures, told from the points of view of three women in Victor Frankenstein’s life; followed by Mary Shelley’s original Frankenstein; Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian (a modern retelling Bram Stoker’s Dracula); and now Addie’s Tsai’s Unwieldy Creatures, a contemporary retelling of Frankenstein. The latter is so contemporaneous that it brings IVF (in vitro fertilization) and other enhancements to human fertility to the equation as well as being a queer, gender-swapped variation of Frankenstein.
As a physician, I am fully cognizant of the ethical and moral issues that must be considered in the creation and ending of life and was pleased that Unwieldy Creatures didn’t set those aside but brought them to the forefront with two brilliant—but morally bankrupt—scientists “duke it out” with the feelings and lives of others, including ones they have created in test tubes.Unwieldy Creatures takes a long, hard look at who is monster and who isn’t.
This book also deals with family issues: what does a family consist of? is a family made or created? In addition, it handles in a sensitive way the issues of gender norms and differences: what does a male or female consist of? are genders made or created? from nature or nuture? In addition, the novel deals with the struggles of being from a mixed background: which race is dominant? the one whose genes are strongest? the one the child is raised as? As the mother of a mixed-race child, I find this line of thought very intriguing.
Tsai’s characters are vivid and compelling with their traits ranging from the extreme narcissism of Dr. Frank to almost all-accepting Pine. The writing was stylistically unique enough that I underlined a lot of choice lines starting on the second page.
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Unwieldy Creatures (Jaded Ibis Press, August 2, 2022) is available through:
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You can find my review of Kris Waldheer’s Unnatural Creatures here.
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