Mary and Maria - Matilda

An absolutely beautiful profound exploration of grief and loss permeating through all of life. That being said, I don’t remember half of the book

The final chapter broke my soul and left it to be trampled on the ground.

Unlike Shelley's first and most known novel Frankenstein, this is a character driven novella that is incredibly well written and emotionally intense.  It follows the protagonist Matilda who, after her mother dies due to complications with childbirth, is left in the care of her aunt until she turns 16 and her father pops back on the scene. Matilda spends most of the novella in utter isolation and it causes her to feel incredibly alone and to resent the company of everyone, that is until she meets her one true friend in the world by chance one day in the middle of nowhere. I loved the way this novella tackles human nature, in particular when that is challenged by lack of human contact, and I was deeply impressed with the way Shelley is able to convey the mental deterioration of her protagonist so effectively that Matilda becomes so familiar and her struggles are a lot more hard hitting for the reader.  Although Frankenstein is a fantastic novel, Matilda is definitely one of Mary Shelley's best written works and I would definitely recommend as a place to start with her work if you can handle a bit more hard hitting stories that tackle mental health in particular depression and suicide.