Tuma, Refe. Frances and the Monster Fiction. HarperCollins, 08/2022. 352pp. $17.99. 978-0-06-308576-3. ADDITIONAL. GRADES 5-7.
It’s 1939 Switzerland and eleven-year-old Frances never gets to go anywhere and rarely sees anyone. Since the car accident that took her right ear, she’s stayed on her family’s estate with her genuis scientist parents, tormenting the tutors, who rarely last long, while working on her own inventions. But when her parents journey to a scientific symposium and leave Frances in the charge of an artificially intelligent automoton, her acts of rebellion take a dramatic turn and Frances unintentionally looses a monster on the unsuspecting city of Bern. Can an anxious, sheltered, and priviledged girl, who dresses as a boy, save a conservative city aided only by her automoton’s head, a sentient chimpanzee, and a sensitive local boy? This updated, steampunk riff on a gender-expansive Frankenstein suffers from too many pages and two-dimensional villains, but the nonstop action, STEM themes, and very endearing sidekicks help keep readers engaged. An epilogue indicates a sequel is in the works.
Melissa McAvoy, Retired
