Eynhallow

McGregor (Wasps in the Ice Cream) offers a retelling of Mary Shelley’s classic story that includes its own tragic and terrifying elements. Agnes Tulloch and her family live on the windswept island of Eynhallow. Growing disillusioned with island life and her boorish husband, Agnes, like many other island residents, takes note of the stranger who has come to Eynhallow to work in solitude. Hired to cook and clean for the stranger, the infamous Victor Frankenstein, Agnes finds herself drawn to him, even as the evil he brings sweeps over the island. Many authors have tackled Shelley’s story, but McGregor doesn’t simply use the story as a shoddy skeleton for his own. He assembles a compelling narrative that steadily becomes monstrous as Agnes and the island get swept up in Frankenstein’s machinations. As portrayed by narrator Angela Ness, Agnes is a multifaceted woman who loves her family (her children, at least) but wants something more out of life. Listeners will understand why Frankenstein might tempt her and weep for Agnes as she’s consumed by horror and heartbreak.