Meka is a licenced Mortuary Assistant in her family business – Redwood Funeral Home. Still at school, most people think she’s weird being around death every day, but she has a group of friends who are okay with it – mostly.

It’s her boyfriend Noah whose opinion matters the most, and he’s perfectly fine with her working on the town’s dearly departed, and comforting their grieving relatives. She loves her job and has become almost as skilled as her mother. Together, they make their ‘guests’ look nearly as good in death as in life, with expert makeup and sculpting too, when required.

Life is good, business is going well, and her skills are getting better with each ‘guest’. Then a terrible loss affects them all, and everything changes.

Months later, Meka is just beginning to emerge from the loss when she spies strangers following her. Her dad’s pet ravens are acting strangely, and then a shop assistant is attacked while they are in the store. Meka is wondering about her sanity, when she sees something impossible. Have her parents been hiding a secret her entire life?

Make Me A Monster is just as amazing as previous novels by this author – Cinderella is Dead and Sleep Like Death, which are also bended tales on classics.

With a twist on Mary Shelley’s famous story, this novel is perfect for Frankenstein fans, with the original story and author referenced, and a delicious shock I never expected in the plot.

The further I read, the more intense the tale becomes. There are so many times it looks as all is lost as Meka is outmatched against her foe again and again. How will she cope with one secret after another being revealed about her family, her past and most of all, her true self?

I’d love to say more, but too much on this one would spoil the journey the reader takes with Meka.

Set in the present with historical nods, Make Me A Monster is perfect for my Frankenstein collection. 

Author – Kalynn Bayron

Age – 12+

Find more novels by Kalynn Bayron here

Publisher – Bloomsbury

Set – Contemporary New York State USA

Viewpoint – 1st person / present tense

Violence – Yes

Sex – No

Real Life – Yes / Horror / Fantasy

Fantasy – Undead (NOT zombies)

Blend – Real Life / Horror / Undead

(2025, Retelling, Bloomsbury, Family, Love, Grief, Horror, Secret, Mortician’s Assistant, Death, Funeral Home, Rituals, Frankenstein, Ravens)