Meka spends her life surrounded by death. Literally. Her parents run a funeral home out of their house, and at seventeen, Meka has just been certified as New York State’s youngest mortician’s assistant. She has been helping her parents working in the world of death her entire life, and with her boyfriend, Noah, and two best friends happily settled into her weird little world, she’s completely satisfied with her life.
Except that the awful dream she’s had her whole life, where she’s in a terrifying car accident and watches her dad hold her dying mum, has a new scene: Meka lying on the ground in agonising pain. And the dream seems to be coming more frequently. And her mum’s health seems to be getting worse, even though she still looks as healthy as ever. And never mind she thinks the ‘guest’ she was prepping moved a little when Meka wasn’t looking. And the missing mortuary wax and spray paint…
Secrets and death go hand in hand, but when tragedy strikes and Noah is involved, Meka’s world is turned upside down. Secrets usually buried with the dead begin crawling to the surface.
Make Me A Monster is the latest release from New York Times bestselling American YA and Middle Grade author Kalynn Bayron. This modern twist on the story of Dr. Frankenstein is the most recent of Bayron’s reimaginings of classic stories and fairy tales. Personalising the story with a teenage protagonist sorting out her moral standing amidst the threat of losing those she loves most gives this story a relevance that Shelley’s original couldn’t match for today’s readers.
Bringing themes of friendship and acceptance, self-doubt and dealing with loss, Bayron creates characters that feel both familiar yet uncomfortably unusual, buried within a story that is just different enough to make you feel like maybe, possibly, it could actually happen. Make Me A Monster invites you to suspend your disbelief while diving into an entirely believable modern world where monsters and men exist side by side. Though death and decay abound, this is a read suitable for anyone 14+ years with a relatively strong stomach for dealings with dead bodies.
