Love and Other Monsters — Emily Franklin

All love stories are ghost stories waiting to happen… Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet meets Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice in this intense and propulsive story of love, lust, art and betrayal, based on the important—and forgotten—life of eighteen-year-old Claire Clairmont. In the bizarrely cold, scandalous summer of 1816, a group of famous young writers gathered at a mansion on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Brilliant Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, her fiery fiancé Percy Shelly, the famously promiscuous Lord Byron, and his sexually tormented personal physician all sheltered together during the storms of what would become known as The Year Without Summer. But they were not alone. Claire Clairmont, Mary’s impressionable, clever, and dangerously loyal step-sister joined them. That summer of sex, betrayal, and creative passion gave the world the works of Frankenstein, the modern vampire legend, and the mythic image of these Romantic literary giants. When a global climate catastrophe wreaks havoc, Claire tries to separate from Mary and Percy Shelley, finding strength in her individuality. Yet Claire is also caught up in romance, fueled by Jane Austen’s novels, as she pursues Lord Byron whose celebrity status—and the paparazzi lurking nearby—threatens them all. As the connections between each member of the group grow more complex, Claire tries to find purpose in a world built by and created for men. While those around her write what will become some of the most famous works in literature, Claire must ask herself just how far she will go for love. With dramatic weather threatening the food supply, Claire proves her worth by learning to forage for food, all the while documenting everything in her journal. As the summer progresses, passions rise and secrets refuse to stay hidden in Claire’s pages. Love and Other Monsters offers a deep look into the loyalty of siblings, the commitment required to make meaningful art, the role of fame, and the creation of monsters—both those on the page and those who walk among us. Claire Clairmont poured her love, life and razor-sharp wit into the pages of her now-missing journal, a document which everyone present had reason to destroy in order to protect themselves. Now Claire, all but forgotten in her famous sister’s shadow, will tell her story.