Just in time for Halloween, here is a historical horror romance in which a woman builds her own boyfriend out of an assemblage of attractive parts, a deed that I do not endorse.

This is a strange, off-beat book that won’t please everyone, but once I settled into it I quite enjoyed this funny romance, in which Dr. Frankenstein’s sister builds a boyfriend and learns a little something about basic ethics and empathy in a reverse-Pygmalion tale.

Here’s the publisher’s description of the plot:

For generations, every Frankenstein has found their true love and equal, unlocking lifetimes of blissful wedded adventure. Clever, pretty (and odd) Angelika Frankenstein has run out of suitors and fears she may become the exception to this family rule. When assisting in her brother Victor’s ground-breaking experiment to bring a reassembled man back to life, she realizes that having an agreeable gentleman convalescing in the guest suite might be a chance to let a man get to know the real her. For the first time, Angelika embarks upon a project that is all her own.

When her handsome scientific miracle sits up on the lab table, her hopes for an instant romantic connection are thrown into disarray. Her resurrected beau (named Will for the moment) has total amnesia and is solely focused on uncovering his true identity. Trying to ignore their heart-pounding chemistry, Angelika reluctantly joins the investigation into his past, hoping it will bring them closer.

But when a second suitor emerges to aid their quest, Angelika wonders if she was too hasty inventing a solution. Perhaps fate is not something that can be influenced in a laboratory? Or is Will (or whatever his name is!) her dream man, tailored for her in every way? And can he survive what was done to him in the name of science, and love?

The story has a ton of character development. Will’s is mostly external – once he gets his bearings, his character traits stay pretty consistent, but until he resolves the question of his past he can’t move forward. He makes for a kind but broody hero, with a code of honor that poses a barrier to romance until he can resolve his past. Once Will is brought to life, the plot boils down to whether he and Angelika will experience true love, which means navigating a whole mess of consent issues and questions about biology and class and so much more – it’s really a hot mess. Watching the honorable Will and the spoiled Angelika deal with that mess is very entertaining if you can tolerate the emotional and physical initial ick factor, which is high.

Of the two, Angelika has more internal character development, and this is a relief since at the beginning of the book she is very spoiled, utterly unaware of her privilege, and careless with the lives of those around her, not to mention the bodies of the dead. Angelika is also terribly frustrated and bored, trapped at home with no intellectual stimulation or company her age while her brother travels the world. She’s unable to find her own husband or run her own household without her brother’s assistance. It was easy to both feel frustration on her behalf at the limits imposed upon her by society, and to feel irritation at her unquestioning attitude of entitlement.

Although I enjoy romances in which both characters subtly help each other grow as people, I would normally loathe a romance in which a man is constantly urging a woman to be different. However, Angelika is such a brat at the start of the book, and Will is so gentle in his efforts to help Angelika be a better person, that I didn’t mind the dynamic between them at all.

Back when I was teaching, we used to talk about the importance of “catching” a child being good, so that instead of scolding them for having done something wrong we could instead praise them for having done something right. This is very much Will’s approach – not scolding or nagging but instead praising Angelika when she does something kind or thoughtful for others. Instead of being patronizing or controlling, he’s quite sweet. He sees something in Angelika that already exists and simply encourages her to let these better qualities flourish.

Terrific side characters round out the story, including Angelika’s terrible brother, her wonderful sister-in-law, a furiously irritable housekeeper, a villager who becomes Angelika’s first friend, a baby, a dashing Army officer, and a pig who is besotted with Victor. Yes, there’s a love triangle (two, if you count the one between Victor, his betrothed, and the besotted pig), and lord knows I’m sick of love triangles, but this one was fine. The reader always knows how the triangle will resolve itself, but its existence gives Angelika and Will a chance to ponder, separately and together, what their married life might look like compared to Angelika’s possible life with someone who is neither formerly dead nor as introverted as Will.

I was somewhat irked by the gradual yet inexorable reduction of Angelika’s dreams. Angelika begins the book wanting to marry, have her own house and have children, but she also has an amazing intellect that is stifled by her brother, and she longs to travel and have some adventures. As the book progresses, her desires shrink more and more to the domestic. There’s nothing wrong with wanting a spouse, a child, and a home – that’s what I wanted for myself, in fact. But it made me frustrated to see that by the end of the book this is ALL that Angelika wants.

This book is very odd tonally, veering wildly from satire to horror (Will’s rebirth is seriously horrifying, encompassing both body horror and psychological horror) to wacky rom-com, with some historical romance thrown in, and a dash of paranormal. It contains very mixed messages about the lot of woman and the thrills of domestic life, and explicit sex scenes that involve a man who is, and I can’t overemphasizes this, SEWN TOGETHER FROM CORPSES.

It certainly won’t be for everybody, but after a couple of chapters I got the hang of it and was quite charmed, not to mention entertained. Ultimately, the characters sold the story. If you like offbeat characters and found family, and you don’t mind your books being on the far end of quirky with some doses of hardcore horror mixed with sexy times and whimsy, you’ll enjoy this.