Frankenstein
Acceptable with guidance. Age: 17+. A Catholic review of this book for parents.
Our review
A young scientist named Victor makes a living creature out of dead body parts. He is scared of it and runs away. The lonely creature is rejected by everyone and turns to revenge, and both their lives end in sorrow. It is a classic warning about pride, about a man who tries to play the Creator and then abandons what he made. It is dark, full of murder and despair, and nobody in it turns to God for mercy. The age shown is 17, our independent reading age for a twelfth-grade classic. It is stricter than Common Sense Media's 14.
For parents
Can be read aloud with a mature teen from about fifteen. Independent reading from seventeen, which is the age we show. Common Sense Media says 14. Know before you start: several innocent people die, a servant is executed for a murder she did not commit, the bride is killed on her wedding night, and the book ends with a planned suicide. There is no sexual content or bad language. Ask: what was Victor's real sin, making the creature or abandoning him? Why does the creature say he is like the fallen angel and not Adam? What would have changed if one person had shown him mercy? Where is God missing in this story? Help a teen see that despair and revenge are the end of the road without grace, not the truth about us.