She Who Makes Monsters: Mary Shelley, Necromancy and Everything We Know

By Ahaqir Ishaq | News | October 8, 2026

What if the woman who wrote Frankenstein had a way to bring back the dead? That is the unsettling premise behind She Who Makes Monsters, Catherine Wignall’s upcoming young adult gothic romance. The novel imagines a young Mary Shelley discovering a supernatural inheritance and pursuing a dangerous reunion with her mother.

Sourcebooks Fire is publishing the book in August 2027. Here is what readers should know about its story, literary connection and conflicting publication-date listings.

What Is She Who Makes Monsters About?

The story follows seventeen-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, the future Mary Shelley, who wants control over her writing, relationships and future. Her involvement with Percy Shelley threatens those ambitions when her father proposes sending her to Ireland to work as a governess.

Then Mary discovers a grimoire among her late mother’s possessions, along with a family secret involving resurrection. She leaves England determined to bring her mother back. As the book’s retailer synopsis explains, her growing obsession threatens her friendships and first love. The premise connects her supernatural experiments to the summer spent with Percy Shelley and Lord Byron that inspired Frankenstein.

When Will She Who Makes Monsters Be Released?

The book is expected in August 2027, but its exact publication date currently differs between sources.

The October 7 PEOPLE cover reveal reports August 3, 2027. However, Target’s deluxe hardcover listing gives August 31, 2027. Readers should check the date for their chosen edition before ordering.

Current hardcover listings identify the publisher as Sourcebooks Fire, give a length of 384 pages and list ISBN 9781464295881. Those details remain subject to change before publication.

Why Catherine Wignall Chose Mary Shelley

In the cover-reveal interview, Wignall says the idea grew from frustration with a conversation celebrating Percy Shelley and Byron while overlooking Mary. She also connects the novel’s resurrection theme to childhood experiences with undiagnosed OCD, fears about losing loved ones and grief. Her aim includes giving female anger room to exist.

That background adds another dimension to the premise: the possibility of resurrection becomes a way to explore the desire to protect people from loss.

Is the Necromancy Based on Mary Shelley’s Real Life?

The magical inheritance and resurrection plot are elements of Wignall’s fictional reimagining. Readers should approach the book as supernatural fiction inspired by literary history.

The historical foundation is compelling on its own. Shelley was the daughter of writers Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. The famous summer near Lake Geneva took place in 1816, and Frankenstein was published anonymously in 1818, as the scholarly resource Romantic Circles recounts.

The distinction matters because the novel’s description introduces a seventeen-year-old protagonist. That should not be read as Shelley’s age throughout the historical summer of 1816: born in August 1797, she was eighteen when that summer began.

How Does It Connect to Frankenstein?

Frankenstein follows Victor Frankenstein’s creation of a living being and the consequences of his rejection of that creature. The British Library’s discussion of gothic literature places the novel within that tradition of unsettling scientific creation.

Wignall’s premise offers a different route toward the question of making life. My interest is in the emotional motive: a daughter trying to recover her mother. That gives the supernatural plot an intimate starting point, while raising questions about what love can justify and when determination becomes obsession. This is an interpretation of the announced premise; the book’s execution remains to be assessed after reading.

Do You Need to Read Frankenstein First?

The announcement does not establish Frankenstein as required reading. Familiarity with Shelley’s novel may help readers recognize thematic connections, especially around creation, responsibility and loss. The available description also gives She Who Makes Monsters its own central conflict to follow.

For now, the cover reveal and synopsis establish its premise and intended audience. They do not establish its ending, detailed magic rules or how closely individual events follow Shelley’s biography.

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