Helga

A reimagining of Frankenstein, this horror comedy combines romance, body horror, and climate anxiety—from the POV of a girl monster.

Helga is not the obedient science experiment her father intended. And though she has only just awoken, he leaves her in the care of his lab assistant Penny to go on a business trip.

Bursting with curiosity, Helga quickly escapes from the well-meaning Penny and heads into Amaris City. There Helga finds she is as untamable as the invasive blackberry vines overtaking the island. And because of the misdeeds of her father’s scientific community, the natural world grows more volatile.

Helga soon discovers the night market, rowdy clubs, delicious food, and cute boys. Enamored with city life, she’ll do anything to find love—but she has only two weeks until her father gets back, and besides there are ominous rumblings from the volcanic island that could put her dating schemes, and even her own life, in grave peril.

Katherine Yu writes dark speculative fiction. She is the author of Direwood, and her story “Balloon Girl” was published in the horror anthology Death in the Mouth. She was born in Nanjing and is now based in New York.