For this piece, I was influenced by various aspects of Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves. For instance, I included references to Greek mythology (specifically about the Labyrinth and the Minotaur), some skewed placements of words and made the maze somewhat similar to the house in book. For the most part, the piece is about a girl influenced by the Minotaur myth (her “father’s favorite”) recounting her traumatic experience in a maze.

At the end of the piece, I wanted to focus on the theme of trauma. In House of Leaves, the Navidsons and Johnny Truant experience severe trauma but they both have dissimilar endings. Karen and Navidson get to rekindle their love while Johnny’s future is left ambiguous and with all his troubles quite unresolved. In this piece, I made the main character’s ending optimistic. Those who experience trauma don’t always have to live the rest of their lives in depression or constant fear. Though they may not be able to ever forget their trauma, they can still learn to move forward from it—especially with loved ones at their side.

I was inspired to write this piece by many different aspects in Frankenstein. The titular Garden came about in my head after reading all the beautiful descriptions of nature in the novel. I tried to capture in my opening paragraphs a small sense of Romanticism and their love of nature. The other idea that inspired me was the idea of creation. In Frankenstein Victor is often referred to as the creator of his creature and while at first he can’t wait to be seen as a creator and worshiped by this thing that should rightfully call him God, he eventually is terrified by his creation and curses himself for ever having brought it to this Earth. I wanted to play with creation in this story through Gerald and his wife being unable to have children and Gerald seeing himself as the creator of this Garden. Just like Mary Shelley I tried to skim over the “science” of what was actually happening in the story but I was inspired by reading reports over DNA splicing and fertility treatments.

The section on Henry’s death in Frankenstein left me pretty underwhelmed. Immediately after the fact, Shelley very rapidly shifts to Frankenstein’s ensuing depression and, though Henry is obviously the cause, he isn’t really the focus. I wanted to give Henry a more fitting tribute. Since we never really learn the details of what happened to Henry after his death, I may have embellished that he was eventually buried in Ireland and never brought back to Geneva, but again, Frankenstein as a narrator, in the middle of his episode, didn’t give me much to work with. Leaving Henry there in Ireland seemed to me to emphasize how overcome Frankenstein had become by this point. So I used an unnamed villager as a narrator to tell how the whole town felt about this event and also to reflect the mystery surrounding it, and tried to match the feel of the book with the language my narrator uses.

“In Sheep’s Clothes” was inspired by Emily Carroll’s style, specifically from “His Face All Red” and “Margot’s Room”. The idea of a narrator who can’t quite be trusted, who may know a horrible truth or simply be out of their mind. This idea is seen throughout Emily’s works, notably in “Margot’s Room” as the mother sees her husband as some sort of monster. However, it is left to the reader to decide whether or not they believe that he is truly the beast depicted or if the narrator has simply succumbed to grief and madness. The idea of a town thrown into chaos at the hands of a “beast” is inspired by “His Face All Red”. The writing style in general, most obviously the heavy use of repetition and shorter sentences, is also inspired by Emily and her work. The hope was to progressively instill a sense of dread into the reader as they see the narrator’s supposed insanity and his descent into madness as he begins his hunt of the “beast”.