When does obsession become madness?
Tragedy has forced sixteen-year-old Victor Frankenstein to swear off alchemy forever. He burns the Dark Library. He vows he will never dabble in the dark sciences again—just as he vows he will no longer covet Elizabeth, his brother’s betrothed.
If only these things were not so tempting.
When he and Elizabeth discover a portal into the spirit world, they cannot resist. Together with Victor’s twin, Konrad, and their friend Henry, the four venture into a place of infinite possibilities where power and passion reign. But as they search for the knowledge to raise the dead, they unknowingly unlock a darkness from which they may never return.
Victor Frankenstein is recounting his story to Henry Clerval in Mary Shelley’s original novel, Frankenstein when he states, “It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.”
It is this quote that I believe helped Oppel really embody the vigorous character of Victor Frankenstein as a teenager, and this second installment in “The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein” pushes the character to limits that helps readers understand his adult counterpart and his later actions in his tries to reanimate dead tissue.
Such Wicked Intent picks up a few weeks after the end of This Dark Endeavor with the Frankensteins, Elizabeth, and Henry mourning the loss of Victor’s twin brother Konrad. Victor is still conflicted over the failure of the Elixir of Life and watches the books from the Dark Library burn in a scene that reminded me a lot of the one with the Nazi book burning in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. But, a metal book-shaped object escaped the wrath of the flames.
This book is the instigator for the adventure that follows through the novel. Victor discovers an entrance to the spirit world where he is able to see his brother Konrad and obtain an obscene amount of knowledge (including how to turn lead to gold). I wonder if the information he obtained while in the spirit world will be the reason he turns to studying science…because when we meet Victor in Shelley’s novel, he is a student.
Oppel did a great job of continuing the characterization of Elizabeth, and I believe that the experiences in this novel will really help her become the character described by Shelley as, “She was no longer that happy creature who in earlier youth wandered with me on the banks of the lake and talked with ecstasy of our future prospects. The first of those sorrows which are sent to wean us from the earth had visited her, and its dimming influence quenched her dearest smiles.” In addition, the cover really forshadows the eventual marriage between the two characters.
Something to look for in Such Wicked Intent, an allusion to the famous image of Victor Frankenstein and the creature speeding along the ice with dog sleds.
Overall, I think I liked Such Wicked Intent more than This Dark Endeavor and think it deserves 5 Bards.
Moving! 