Shocking Experiments of Miss Mary Bennet

By: Melinda Taub

Published by Grand Central Publishing, 2025

<b>An utterly fantastical and undeniably queer melding of <i>Pride and Prejudice</i> and <i>Frankenstein</i> that recasts Mary Bennet as an insatiable scientist, one who creates a monster in an attempt to save herself from spinsterdom</b><br> <br> <br> <br> Awkward, plain, and overlooked, Mary Bennet has long been out of favor not only with her own family but with generations of readers of <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>. But what was this peculiar girl really doing while her sisters were falling in love?<br> <br> <br> <br> As, one by one, Mary's sisters get married, she hatches a plan. If the world won't give this fierce, lonely girl a place, she'll carve one out herself. In a desperate bid to avoid becoming a burden on her family or, worse, married to a controlling man, Mary does what any bright, intrepid girl would do. She takes to the attic and teach herself to reanimate the dead. If finding acceptance requires a husband, she'll get one. . . even if she has to make him herself.<br> <br> <br> <br> However, Mary's genius and determination aren't enough to control the malevolent force that she unwittingly unleashes. Soon, her attempts to rein in the destruction wreaked by her creations leads her to forge a perhaps unlikely friendship with another brilliant young woman unlike any she's ever known. As that friendship blossoms into something passionate and all-consuming, Mary begins to realize that she may have to choose between the acceptance she's always fought for and true happiness.