Private beta — free Pro through the end of the year

Mary Shelley · 1818 · 211 pages

A story inside a story
inside a letter.

Frankenstein opens with a sea captain writing home, hands the narration to Victor, and then hands it again to the creature. Readers lose the thread of who is speaking, and the events arrive nothing like in order. Both are things a reader can be asked about — with the passage quoted back.

When the book does not answer your question, it tells you so instead of inventing an answer.

Download Frankenstein

The 1818 text, public domain, hosted here, 211 pages.

A cited answer in the reader, with a link to the passage it quotes
A cited answer in the reader, with a link to the passage it quotesThe screenshot is from a converted research paper — the demo assets we have today. The citation works the same way in any book.

Three narrators, kept straightPro

The character tracker is built from the text, so when a voice returns after a hundred pages you can place whose account you are inside.

Events in the order they happenedPro

A plot timeline drawn from the book — worth more in a novel told in nested flashback than in one told straight through.

Quotes you can actually locate

Ask where something is said and the answer cites the passage and opens the book at it, which matters when three narrators sound alike in summary.

Features marked Pro need a Pro plan and are usage-limited. Reading the book, asking questions and getting cited answers do not.

Things worth asking this book

Each answer quotes the passage it came from and links to where it sits in the text.

  • “Who is writing the opening letters, and to whom?”
  • “At what point does the creature begin telling his own story?”
  • “What does Victor say he was trying to achieve, in his own words?”
  • “Where does the novel first suggest Victor is an unreliable narrator?”

Questions people actually ask

Which edition is this?
The 1818 text, public domain, hosted here — download it from /sample-books. It is 211 pages.
Can it keep the narrators straight?
That is what the character tracker is for: it builds the cast from the text, so a returning voice is one you can place. It is a Pro feature with usage limits.
Will it invent an interpretation?
No — when the book does not say, it tells you so. It quotes what is on the page rather than what criticism has made of it.

It works the same on a textbook

The same reader handles equations, figures and tables, with answers scoped to the chapter you are working in.

What it does not do yet

You have been sold AI reading tools before. Here is where this one is weak, so you can decide before you spend an evening on it.

  • The character tracker and plot timeline are Pro features and are usage-limited. Reading, asking and cited answers are not.
  • It answers from the 1818 text we host. It will not compare editions or tell you what the 1831 revisions changed.
  • It runs in a browser, on a phone or a laptop. There is no native app yet.
  • Highlights and notes export to Notion, Obsidian, Markdown or JSON. Generated study material does not export yet.
  • It is a private beta. Things break, and the deal is that you tell me when they do.

Free Pro through the end of the year

The first 50 invitations include free Pro through the end of the year. Invitations go out in small batches so I can actually talk to everyone. Tell me what you are trying to read and I will send one — all I ask is that you tell me what breaks.

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