What Happened to Marilyn


Fiction - Science Fiction
318 Pages
Reviewed on 01/09/2015
Buy on Amazon

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Author Biography

Alexander Rigby grew up in a small town called Saegertown in northwest Pennsylvania. As a child, he enjoyed reading a great deal and eventually his love of books transpired into a passion for writing. After graduating from high school as Valedictorian, he attended the University of Pittsburgh where he majored in Political Science and Anthropology. During his senior year of college, he began writing his debut novel, The Second Chances of Priam Wood, which was published in March of 2013. This novel received an honorable mention in the 2013 New York Book Festival, and was recognized as a finalist in the General Fiction category of the Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Contest.

He lives in the city of Pittsburgh and works for a publishing company downtown. He loves to travel, write, and spend time with his family and friends.

His second novel, What Happened to Marilyn, was released on August 5th, 2014.

    Book Review

Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite

What Happened to Marilyn is a futuristic adventure by Alexander Rigby. As the title suggests, it centres on a fantastic new imagining of the fate of Marilyn Monroe in which the glamour icon evades her death as we know it, travelling to the distant future through the efforts of Jeremiah Gold. A rich and morally questionable genius, Jeremiah has set his mind to righting a wrong from a hundred years ago, and bringing Marilyn to his side in the future where he thinks she belongs. While the new world is fascinating at first for the starlet, cracks begin to show in Marilyn’s façade, and the darkness and ennui that plagued her in 1962 seem to have made the hundred-year jump too.

One might be forgiven for thinking that What Happened to Marilyn is some sort of fantasy fulfilment novel, but it was so much more than that right from the off. Jeremiah’s emotional connection to Marilyn through the death of his mother makes her a very fitting companion for him in the future. I particularly enjoyed the way that Alexander Rigby crafts Marilyn into a wizened woman, who looks back on the experiences we all know lie in her past, and seeks new lessons from them to teach Jeremiah in his future life. Jeremiah learns valuable lessons about life and love at her side and, though the novel is far more of a romantic drama than a science fiction tale, I found it to be a light-hearted and highly enjoyable time travel adventure with a conclusion that really warms your heart.