Shade: The Complete Trilogy

2019 Silver Medal Winner, Young Adult Fiction - Horror/Mystery, Independent Publisher's Moonbeam Children's Book Awards

2019 Realm Award Winner in Supernatural/Paranormal/Horror

Frankenstein meets Dracula in this Gothic retelling of Mary Shelley's classic tale.

"Beautiful and atmospheric."

"Merrie takes the reader on a Gothic horror thrill ride through Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin's eyes... "

"Shade hit the ground running from page 1."

"Again, Merrie Destefano keeps a relentless, page-turning pace that will leave you at the end breathless and anxious... "

"A beautifully written story that reminded me of the TV miniseries, The Frankenstein Chronicles, which I also loved."

"Shade is an imaginative and fantastical recreation of not just Frankenstein, but the entire tale regarding how Mary Shelley came up with the story!"

"Merrie Destefano breathes new life into the Gothic horror genrewith SHADE, a gorgeously written re-imagining of FRANKENSTEIN from the point-of-view of Mary Godwin."

"With its haunting imagery, electrical tension, and compelling characters, SHADE will appeal to fans of Ransom Rigg's MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN and Angela Carter's THE BLOODY CHAMBER."

A holiday in Switzerland is supposed to lift Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin's spirits. She wants to forget the past and have fun. In fact, everyone in her party is running away from one indiscretion or another - from her fiance Percy Shelley to Lord Byron to Mary's stepsister, Claire. But from the moment Mary arrives at Byron's villa, she knows something is wrong. He rushes her indoors and forbids all of them to go out at night, claiming that the horrible weather has driven wild animals down from the mountains.

The only person who doesn't seem to be running away from anything is a handsome, young Italian doctor, John Polidori. Instead, he is fervently pursuing local folk legends and a new scientific theory that claims people can be raised from the dead.

But it's not until they all challenge one other to write ghost stories that the real danger begins. In a nightmare, Mary envisions a patchwork man animated by Galvanism and she begins writing Frankenstein. Likewise, fueled by local legends, John writes The Vampyre - one of the first vampire stories ever written.

What neither one of them knows is that they are conjuring a dark evil. Before long, all of their lives will be in danger - for neither of these characters are imaginary. Far from it.

For fans of the Netflix program, THE FRANKENSTEIN CHRONICLES, AND I DARKEN by Kiersten White, SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY by Susan Dennard, and BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA.


Genre: Horror