Monster Island

I never was a particular fan of zombies, but this story held my interest anyways.  I liked the pacing within the book and how situations of the characters were represented.  An example would how it would portray Gary's state of mind and how he interacted with the other zombies, as well as his own particular state of being. Dekalb's situation is interesting in a sense that he's taken prisoner by a Somalian woman leader and is forced into going to zombie-ridden New York to get them medicine/drugs.  I liked the fact that all the countries excluding the 3rd world ones were infected and overridden with zombies.  It gave it a nice change of setting, instead of having started in familiar territory (like New York).

I enjoyed the writing style of the book as well, having short chapters with a good amount of detail, but nothing overly flowery in terms of descriptions.  So, the story was a pretty clean read that was written with some thought and maturity. 

Frankenstein

First off, this was a bit (or maybe alot?) different than what I knew from a child.  The story of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster were not something I've seen through some adaptations of it (i.e. movies, cartoons).  It introduces some characters that I've never heard of before, like Robert Walton, who's actually introduced first in the book.  Anyways, I read to find out that Frankenstein was not the name of the monster, but the doctor that created him.  There was also no laboratory scene as to when Dr. Frankenstein created his monster (like there is in so many adaptations).  I didn't realize that there'd be any type of love story in this book, but there was between the Doctor and his love for his adopted sister.

Another thing that surprised me is that the monster was actually intelligent.  Many times I've seen it just make sounds and talk in broken sentences, but the monster in the book could speak and feel emotions, all that a normal human could, after observing a family.

The story in itself is sad in a way.  Dr. Frankenstein wanted to reanimate life, but in the end, abandons his creature and forget about him.  This leaves the monster to feel unwanted and angry as to why this was done to him.  It leads to the incident of the monster killing the Doctor's youngest brother, and framing a woman as well.