MAKE ME A MONSTER

A teenage mortician’s assistant discovers that the dead don’t always stay that way.

Seventeen-year-old Meka is no stranger to death, having grown up working in her parents’ Ithaca, New York, funeral home. Though the morbidity of her job unsettles some of her friends, Meka is passionate about her family’s business, and she has the full support of her boyfriend, Noah. But despite her comfort with death, she’s haunted by a recurring nightmare about her mother dying—a dream she desperately hopes won’t come true. When Meka’s life is rocked by a completely unexpected tragedy, strange things begin happening: She sees shadowy figures lurking, a mysterious gift arrives on her doorstep, and fragments of a buried memory resurface. As Meka slowly pieces together the truth, what she finds forces her to question everything she knows about life and death—and her own family. Bayron crafts a page-turning, atmospheric homage to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, balancing unnerving horror with tender romance. Teens familiar with the original novel will enjoy the modern twist, and the layered mystery will also appeal to reluctant readers and those without prior knowledge of Shelley’s work. The foreboding narrative starts out at a slower pace and builds to an action-packed conclusion, though readers may be left with some unanswered questions. Meka and her family are cued as Black.

Chilling yet romantic; explores the complexities of death, love, and grief.