APRIL 2018 - AudioFile
This feminist retelling of Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN unfolds with Miss Lizzie Lavenza being the first female student to be admitted to a prestigious medical school. She’s thankful for her father’s legacy but also eager to prove her own worth. Narrator Saskia Maarleveld strikes a ladylike tone as she portrays Lizzie’s struggles to be accepted in the competitive bioengineering program at Ingold. Maarleveld excels at finding slight ways to differentiate British accents, helping listeners distinguish secondary characters. The story picks up when Lizzie meets a student who had mysteriously disappeared and discovers a plot that could threaten the very monarchy itself. Science fiction fans will find themselves listening breathlessly as the plot comes to a climax. J.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
"A dark, thrilling and ingenious riff on the Frankenstein legend." -M.R. Carey, author of The Girl with All the Gifts
"This is not a parody of Mary Shelley's classic but a clever new take on its elements in a mystery complete with Victorian writing flourishes and the mild titillation expected from a romance novel. Here the evil scientists are surgeons with an ambitious plot to change the course of politics... Fans of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles will enjoy this." -Kirkus Reviews
"In this inventive Victorian-era steampunk tale...Kwitney blends elements of murder mystery, classic science fiction, and gothic romance, all cleverly framed around a Beauty and the Beast take on Frankenstein." -Booklist
"A page-turner from start to finish, fans of Marissa Meyer, Gail Carriger, and Cassandra Clare will find much to love. Highly recommended." -School Library Journal
"Alisa Kwitney has an understanding of human foibles and follies and a light, intelligent touch that marks her as an author to watch and enjoy." -#1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman
"Fiendishly clever and gorgeously romantic. Alisa Kwitney spins an electrifying tale of beautiful monsters and mad scientists that will keep your nerves tingling and your heart racing long into the night." -Carol Goodman, New York Times bestselling author of The Metropolitan
"Alisa Kwitney's bold reimagining of Frankenstein with Lizzie at its center is gripping, fierce and timely. Strikingly written and impeccably conjured, the monsters here are all too human." -Gwenda Bond, author of the Lois Lane series
"Cadaver & Queen has everything a discriminating reader would want in a historical, fantastical, science-fictional, romantic thriller. The tension is high, the pacing is fast, the plot twists and turns in unexpected ways, the Victorian social and political scene is deftly sketched and the characters are vivid and satisfyingly complex. It swept me right away." -Delia Sherman, author of The Great Detective
School Library Journal
02/01/2018
Gr 9 Up—First-year med student Elizabeth Lavenza never backs down from a challenge; which is probably a good thing, given that she's the first female student admitted to Ingold Academy of Medicine and Bio-Mechanical Science. Lizzie knew it would be a difficult path, but it's only after she's made the trip from America to England that she realizes even the professors want to see her fail. So when she meets one of the mechanized cadavers created by her professors and sees an opportunity to use one of her inventions to help restore his former intelligence, she jumps at the chance to prove her worth. But along with memories of his past as top student Victor Frankenstein come terrifying revelations of his death—and the sinister plot he had uncovered. This steampunk play on Frankenstein, set in the English countryside against the backdrop of the Boer War, explores themes of belonging, sexuality, and what it means to be human. While all of the main characters are white, one of Lizzie's friends in the nursing school is Jamaican and another in the medical school has a disability. The author briefly explores the ways in which these two students, as well as Lizzie and Victor themselves, are treated as outcasts by their peers and society at large. Lizzie and Victor, through whom the story is told, are extremely likable characters, and readers will fall hard for their love story. VERDICT A page-turner from start to finish, fans of Marissa Meyer, Gail Carriger, and Cassandra Clare will find much to love. Highly recommended.—Kaitlin Frick, New York Public Library
APRIL 2018 - AudioFile
This feminist retelling of Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN unfolds with Miss Lizzie Lavenza being the first female student to be admitted to a prestigious medical school. She’s thankful for her father’s legacy but also eager to prove her own worth. Narrator Saskia Maarleveld strikes a ladylike tone as she portrays Lizzie’s struggles to be accepted in the competitive bioengineering program at Ingold. Maarleveld excels at finding slight ways to differentiate British accents, helping listeners distinguish secondary characters. The story picks up when Lizzie meets a student who had mysteriously disappeared and discovers a plot that could threaten the very monarchy itself. Science fiction fans will find themselves listening breathlessly as the plot comes to a climax. J.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Review
2017-12-06
An American medical student stumbles upon a dark secret in this twist on Frankenstein's story.Against the backdrop of the Boer War, Lizzie, a white girl from New York, moves to England to study at the Ingold Academy of Medicine and Bio-Mechanical Science. Surgeons there are working on a device called a Galvanic Reanimator, with the aim of providing "new and improved" soldiers for Queen Victoria's war effort. Meanwhile, a young med student named Victor Frankenstein, conscious but unable to move and presumed dead, is being turned into a Bio-Mechanical. He slowly regains the use of his limbs and voice as he figures out what's happened to him. Lizzie discovers the still-attractive Victor in a lab with other Bio-Mechanicals, including a hunchback named Igor, and befriends him. This is not a parody of Mary Shelley's classic but a clever new take on its elements in a mystery complete with Victorian writing flourishes and the mild titillation expected from a romance novel. Here the evil scientists are surgeons with an ambitious plot to change the course of politics. There are some holes in the plot, easily glided over by the quick progress of the story and the growing love between Lizzie and Victor.Fans of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles will enjoy this. (Science fiction. 13-17)
