Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, and Guillermo del Toro: a live event

11 Responses to Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, and Guillermo del Toro: a live event

1. Lyrie says:

   November 14, 2025 at 11:38 pm

   It was really fun to hear you talk about the process of making the book, having to figure it out, and how everyone was so generous.

   You’re #1 Best Seller in Genre Films on Amazon.ca tonight – not that I want to buy it there, I was just checking if it was out of stock or something because I pre-ordered it at my local bookstore and they still haven’t received it. :( I haven’t had time to watch the movie though, so i maybe it will just be a holiday gift to myself.

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   • sheila says:

     November 15, 2025 at 11:45 am

     Lyrie – I’ve put in a couple of orders myself and it’ll be about 2 weeks til it gets to me – maybe more – so I’m not sure what’s up with that – it feels definitely like a delay but maybe not, since it’s a specialty book. Strange though that a pre-order still isn’t in! Thank you for using your local bookstore. :)

     and thanks for watching the interview – I always enjoy talking with Jen, and it’s fun to finally be able to talk about Frankenstein (publicly, that is).

     Reply
2. Mike Molloy says:

   November 15, 2025 at 8:48 am

   I looked for your book at bookshop dot org & they show it with Backorder status; also looked at Bezos’ shop & they say “delivered by Dec 8”, which is kind of far away. So maybe they’re out of initial print run & are printing more?

   (I thought I did hear you mention “sold out” during you chat with Jen Johans, but it was a lot to take in I didn’t get the details. So my note here is probably redundant, apologies if I am mansplaining!)

   The movie’s really good, of course. Finished first time through earlier this week, just underway on watch 2.

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   • Lyrie says:

     November 15, 2025 at 11:17 am

     Mike, I was there and I missed that part, so thank you for normal-splaining, haha

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     • sheila says:

       November 15, 2025 at 11:54 am

       lol yeah they ordered a stack of books for the event and they ran out! we’re going to be doing another event in December so they’ll probably stock up on more copies.

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   • sheila says:

     November 15, 2025 at 11:52 am

     Mike – yeah I checked on Amazon too and saw many December dates for delivery – I know this’ll probably be a big holiday gift item so I am just not sure what’s going on!

     I mean, the Barnes & Noble where I did the book event ordered maybe 25 copies of the book for the event – they sold out, and immediately ordered more, since there weren’t enough books for the actual event!! (this, by the way, was the exclusive B&N edition of the book).

     So yeah, not sure what’s happening – especially since the holidays are coming and this book lends itself to being a holiday gift! Glad to hear it’s selling out, of course.

     I bought a copy to send to the guy in Scotland assigned to be my driver – it’s going to be a couple of weeks before I get it (I want to sign it and put a card in there, and then send it off to him). he was so nice and we bonded on The Sopranos – that’s basically all we talked about. I was hoping to at least get it to him in time for Christmas – but maybe that’s not meant to be.

     I’ve had fun going to see the film in the theatre with family and friends – haven’t sat down to watch it alone, streaming – which I will do when I have a second. So glad to hear you enjoyed it. There’s a lot to absorb and it’s fun to look for the work of the people I interviewed – all those little details! Victor’s red gloves!

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     • Mike Molloy says:

       November 15, 2025 at 1:07 pm

       With bookshop.org, i don’t quite know how it works, i know you give them “your” bookstore, which can be any bookstore anywhere doesn’t have to be local to yourself, & they send a percentage of sales to your bookstore. But does that mean you are in some sense ordering through the local place, & that constraints response time? Probably not but dunno

       Sheila O’Malley & GDT fans are legion I guess, so big demand for the book

       Wish I had something to say about the movie, but I usually don’t till like 5th time through. I am going to be looking out for the gloves (glad you mentioned that again, I needed the reminder), & also for Kim Morgan at the wedding (not that I know her well enough to spot, but I think I’ve seen photos accompanying her articles/blog posts)

       I did think it was weird at the wedding, it seemed like there was someone other than the bride in what would nowadays be bridal outfit (white w/ veil I think? only 1 viewing…)? & that turned out not to be Elizabeth? I think you mentioned that in the interview, but again, lots of details, partial recollection

       I also thought there was at least one piece of dialogue that had to be a Young Frankenstein reference, but don’t remember it now. (Forget about James Whale & the rest, for me the great precedent looming over all thing Frankenstein is Mel Brooks. I sincerely hope GDT shot a rendition of Puttin on the Ritz, though I appreciate his good taste in leaving it on the cutting room floor)

       (not relevant here but tacking on since you reviewed: i saw someone on bluesky describe JLaw in Die My Love as inviting comparison to Gena Rowlands in Woman Under the Influence. now that is high praise)

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       • sheila says:

         November 16, 2025 at 7:55 am

         Mike – if you notice at the funerals, the women are also veiled – they look like these eerie faceless angels standing at the grave. so Kate used that “style” at the wedding too – so that you do have like almost a bunch of ghostly figures at this wedding. It’s a I loved what she did with veils, and gauze and layers. Her wedding dress actually looks a little mummy-ish, the bands of fabric around her arms. So many cool fantastical details. I love how it’s vaguely “in the period” – and each element is based on a real thing – but the style is not at all literal or realistic.

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         • Mike Molloy says:

           November 16, 2025 at 10:04 am

           Thanks, will look for that too. Sort of creeping through the re-watch now, I left off where Victor & Elizabeth are having their first quarrel over the dinner table while her uncle & fiance (his financier & brother) go off to smoke cigars.

           Claire is also veiled at least once, I think it’s when she greets Leopold arriving home at the palatial estate
         • sheila says:

           November 17, 2025 at 10:48 am

           Mike – yes, we first see Claire and she looks like … the Red Queen or something. and the veil floating off into the air – so stunning and strange.

           Elizabeth sees right through Victor, in an instant.

           I think Felix Kammerer does an excellent job as William. The contrast. The different accents – it all makes sense in that world since they grew up separately.
3. mutecypher says:

   November 18, 2025 at 3:20 am

   I really enjoyed the discussion with you and Jen.

   It’s been fun looking through the book. I was fascinated to see the reference to Harold Bloom and Negative Sublime in GDT’s notes. Bloom is so idiosyncratic in his interpretations that, to me, he created a meta-fiction with his theories. They were great stories. I can see how his theories have a strong pull on someone wrestling with a thicket of influences the way it seems that GDT does. HB’s book Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human posited that Will invented introspection with Hamlet’s soliloquies. A funny guy. If I recall correctly, your dad didn’t have a high opinion of old Harold.

   I was also intrigued by the note that GDT didn’t want any celeste in Alexandre Desplat’s score. Any idea why?

   As an odd aside, I was looking for composers who called for the celeste stops on an organ. Bach didn’t, since the celeste wasn’t invented till the late 1830’s. But Mahler called for it specifically in a couple of his symphonies. And in reading about Gustav, I started reading up on his wife Alma. I knew that she had married a couple of prominent guys after he died. I had forgotten that she was an accomplished composer herself and gave that up as a condition of marrying Mahler. Which made me think of Alma in Phantom Thread and wonder if Paul Thomas Anderson chose that name for a character who devoted herself to a famous artist.

   I saw the movie in the theater a few weeks back and then watched it on Netflix on Sunday. Just a gorgeous movie.

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