Mary’s Monster by Lita Judge is a book that defies category. This is too bad, because it will get categorized anyway, which means many people will miss it. I can’t express how sad this is, because Mary’s Monster is an otherworldly great book! If you were to ask me what type of book, well…that’s where things get confusing. It was announced in Publishers Weekly as a free verse and fully illustrated YA. Unfortunately, knowing this may turn you away, if that isn’t the kind of thing that sounds interesting to you, which would be a terrible misfortune. Personally, I don’t know what it is: fictionalized biography, graphic novel, dark children’s book? I only came across it because of my own personal obsession with Mary Shelley. But I do know I love it!

On the surface it is a biography of Mary Shelly told from her point of view in…