Story of Frankenstein's monster's son engaging

The author has said ''this is a strange monster of a book'', but it's one that's also strangely interesting.

It's the classic tale of a boy, by trial and error, finding his place in life, along the way falling in love.

So far so normal, but our hero, Boy, is the child of Frankenstein's monster and the Bride, the woman/monster made to be his mate.

They live under an old theatre in New York with creatures from mythology and horror/fantasy, who exist by staging shows for the humans of the city.

Boy is intelligent, having skills in hacking and programming, and writes a piece of code for artificial life, which is probably not a good idea ...

While the story has its weak points, it works: it's heart-warming, the characters are engaging and, as the pace picks up, is hard to put down. Ages 13+.

- René Nol is a Dunedin reader.