The Shocking Experiments of Miss Mary Bennet: A Novel by Melinda Taub

An utterly fantastical and undeniably queer melding of Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein that recasts Mary Bennet as an insatiable scientist, one who creates a monster in an attempt to save herself from spinsterdom

Awkward, plain, and overlooked, Mary Bennet has long been out of favor not only with her own family but with generations of readers of Pride and Prejudice. But what was this peculiar girl really doing while her sisters were falling in love?

As, one by one, Mary's sisters get married, she hatches a plan. If the world won't give this fierce, lonely girl a place, she'll carve one out herself. In a desperate bid to avoid becoming a burden on her family or, worse, married to a controlling man, Mary does what any bright, intrepid girl would do. She takes to the attic and teach herself to reanimate the dead. If finding acceptance requires a husband, she'll get one. . . even if she has to make him herself.

However, Mary's genius and determination aren't enough to control the malevolent force that she unwittingly unleashes. Soon, her attempts to rein in the destruction wreaked by her creations leads her to forge a perhaps unlikely friendship with another brilliant young woman unlike any she's ever known. As that friendship blossoms into something passionate and all-consuming, Mary begins to realize that she may have to choose between the acceptance she's always fought for and true happiness.

• Hardcover
• ISBN: 9781538768297
• 400 pages
• Published by Hachette
• Published on October 07, 2025