Frankenstein is my favorite book of all time, and I don’t say that lightly. First of all, it’s the perfect read for spooky season. It’s also the most well-written book I’ve ever read. Even as a kid, I was obsessed with it – I read children’s versions, watched cartoon adaptations, and loved every horror spin I could find. It’s always been the horror story for me.

But what makes Frankenstein truly stand out is the profound theme: Life is sacred and needs to be treated as such. We can’t create life and then just abandon it. That’s exactly what Victor does, and that’s why the chaos unfolds the way it does. The destruction isn’t solely the monster’s fault – if anything, I blame Dr. Frankenstein more. It’s commentary on nature vs. nurture. And the fact that Mary Shelley managed to craft this masterpiece in such a short span of time makes it even more incredible – it was written at warp speed during a contest Shelley had with her inner circle of writers to see who could come up with the best horror story in the shortest time.

I’ve always felt more for the monster than for Victor. Victor dug his own grave, while the creature was just trying to exist in a world that rejected him at every turn. Morality is the absolute core of this novel. Every theme – creation, responsibility, ambition, isolation, justice – ties back to questions of right and wrong, and what happens when we fail to live up to our duties.

This is one of those books I’m always happy to reread and reanalyze. It means so much to me that I even use a wallet designed to look like a tiny copy of the novel. Many times, I pull it out to pay for something and I get questions about it, and I can start spewing off every thought I have about this book. So many people think they know this story without having read it, which is a real tragedy because if you haven’t read it yet, you’ve been missing out.

What amazes me is how relevant it still feels. We live in an age of science without ethics. Kids are practically being raised by their iPads, and I can’t help but think of Victor neglecting the monster (who was essentially his son, someone he brought into the world but refused to guide).

And then there’s the cultural impact. The Boris Karloff film alone shaped the entire horror genre, and as a massive Boris Karloff fan, I can’t not mention that. But even beyond the pop culture adaptations, the novel itself is timeless (and also very different from the movie, so make sure you watch AND read to fully compare).

If you’ve never read Frankenstein, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s chilling, it’s thoughtful, it’s packed with history, and it only gets better the more you think about it. For me, it will always be the ultimate spooky season classic.