When Lizzie Lavenza enrolled at Ingold as its first female medical student, she knew she wouldn’t have an easy time. From class demands to being an outsider among her male cohorts, she’ll have to go above and beyond to prove herself. So when she stumbles across what appears to be a faulty Bio-mechanical–one of the mechanized cadavers created to service the school–she jumps at the chance to fix it and get ahead in the program.

Only this Bio-mechanical isn’t like the others. Where they are usually empty-minded and perfectly obedient, this one seems to have thoughts, feelings… and self-awareness.

Soon Lizzie realizes that it is Victor Frankenstein–a former student who died under mysterious circumstances. Victor, it seems, still has a spark of human intelligence inside him, along with memories of things he discovered before his untimely death.. .and a suspicion that he was murdered to keep that information from getting out. Suddenly Lizzie finds herself intertwined in dark secrets and sabotage that put her life, and the lives of Victor and their friends, in danger. But Lizzie’s determined to succeed–even if that means fighting an enemy who threatens the entire British Empire.

My Review:

“Arrogance is what thick people call the truth when they don’t like it.”

This is Tales from the Crypt meets Stalking Jack the Ripper with deeper and darker secrets. I love Tales from the Crypt and it’s still one of my favorite shows to watch. Stalking Jack the Ripper was one of those books I hated and it drove me crazy. So this got stuck right in the middle for me.

The cover and spine for this book are stunning. It definitely is the draw to capturing your attention. The synopsis hits you because of the feminist retelling. Even though it doesn’t read like a retelling of Frankenstein much but of another book and tv show.

Elizabeth, Victor, and Henry do make their appearances and the banter between them was great but the story in between could get kind of stuffy. I felt bored with some of this and the twists really didn’t shock me. I expected more but got mediocre.

Cadaver & Queen was an okay read but I don’t see myself reading it again. It definitely doesn’t need a second book and I’m probably going to skip that one.

Beware of the beautiful cover!!