Such Wicked Intent

Such Wicked Intent is the second of Kenneth Oppel's novels about the young Victor Frankenstein, published in 2012 and written as a direct sequel to This Dark Endeavor.

Grief has taken over the Frankenstein household, and Victor's father responds by ordering that the Dark Library be destroyed, on the grounds that nothing good came of his sons' experiments with it. Victor retrieves a book from the shelves before the fire reaches them and finds in it a promise larger than anything the Elixir offered: not only communication with the dead, but entry into their realm. He persuades Elizabeth and Henry to work with him, and the three of them enter the spirit world that lies alongside the chateau, where the rules are different and a body can be assembled and grown towards something close to life.

The novel turns the ambition of the first book into a sustained refusal to accept a death, and it is written for readers who already know where Victor Frankenstein's story ends and want to watch him arrive there one decision at a time.