People often ask why Poor Things is called Poor Things, and the title works on two levels. On the surface it sounds like sympathy — but Gray uses it ironically. Bella herself is literally built from “poor things”: a dead woman’s body fused with her unborn child’s brain, assembled by a man who treats creation as an experiment. The title also nods to how Victorian society treated anyone outside its norms — women, the poor, the “unfit” — as objects to be pitied, corrected, or discarded rather than people. Gray never lets you settle on one reading, which is exactly why the title still provokes debate today.

This is genuinely one of the most interesting debates about Poor Things. The short answer: they are very different experiences, and the book does things the film simply cannot. Where the film (directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, starring Emma Stone) is a visual spectacle — surreal, gorgeous, and funny — the novel is a structural puzzle. Gray tells the story through multiple unreliable narrators: McCandless writes his account as a memoir, and then Bella herself contradicts it entirely in her own letter at the end. You finish the book genuinely unsure whose version of events to believe. That postmodern layer is largely absent from the film. The book is also more explicitly political. Gray embeds sharp commentary on capitalism, class, and Scottish identity that the film softens in favour of the visual journey. And the novel includes Gray’s own illustrations — woodcut-style images drawn from Gray’s Anatomy — which make it a striking physical object. That said, the film makes Bella’s emotional arc more immediately accessible, and Emma Stone’s performance conveys something the prose cannot. My recommendation: watch the film first, then read the book. The book rewards you with everything the film left out.

While Poor Things started with a book, the story was also adapted into an absurdist comedy film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and produced with Emma Stone in the lead role. It’s available to buy or rent digitally on Apple TV and Prime Video, and other video-on-demand platforms.

Poor Things revolves around Bella Baxter, who is found dead in 19th-century Scotland and brought back to life by the eccentric Dr. Godwin Baxter. He renames her Bella Caledonia and introduces her to the world as his ward. As Bella adjusts to her new life, she marries wealthy industrialist McCandless — but soon elopes with a charismatic lawyer named Duncan Wedderburn. Their travels through Europe force Bella to confront who she is and what she wants. The novel explores themes of identity, power, and the consequences of scientific experimentation, all filtered through Alasdair Gray’s signature blend of metafiction and satire.

People are drawn to Poor Things because it taps into something real about what it means to be human — and what it means to be free. Bella’s journey, growing from a blank slate into a woman who refuses to be defined by the men around her, resonates because it isn’t a clean or triumphant arc. It’s messy, funny, and sometimes uncomfortable. The novel also rewards attentive readers with its structural trick: only at the end do you realise that everything you’ve read may have been shaped by a man with his own agenda. That moment of doubt — of realising you’ve been an unreliable reader — is something few books manage. It’s the kind of story that stays with you and changes slightly each time you think about it.

Poor Things is not a gothic novel in the traditional sense, but it draws heavily on gothic tropes — particularly body horror, reanimation, and a deep interrogation of identity. The novel’s dark humor, grotesque elements, and satirical examination of societal norms place it in a broader tradition of gothic, surreal, and absurdist literature. Its eccentric characters, explorations of the uncanny, and eerie atmosphere should appeal to readers who enjoy gothic works that blend horror, humor, and philosophical questioning.

The film adaptation of Poor Things won four Oscars at the 2024 Academy Awards: Best Costume Design, Best Make-up and Hairstyling, Best Actress (Emma Stone), and Best Production Design. It was also widely praised for its distinctive visual style, which effectively reflects the whimsical and unsettling world of the original novel.

Poor Things is set in the late 19th century. If you are looking for a specific year: Gray never dates the story precisely, but the central events take place in 1880s Glasgow, and the closing letter jumps forward decades into the early 20th century. That was a time when science, social change and Victorian norms were beginning to stir in fascinating, sometimes unsettling ways. The novel’s world is richly layered, with elements of gothic mystery and dark humor, capturing a society on the cusp of change through characters who are equally strange and compelling.

The film is shot in colour — though it uses a striking, heightened visual palette that feels almost painterly. Director Yorgos Lanthimos opens certain sequences in black and white before transitioning to colour as Bella’s world expands, which is a deliberate visual metaphor for her growing consciousness. The original novel by Alasdair Gray includes black-and-white illustrations drawn by Gray himself, so the film’s visual contrasts are a nod to the book’s aesthetic.

Poor Things is controversial primarily because it pushes boundaries around sexuality, power, and what it means to be a fully formed person. Bella is brought back to life in a Frankenstein-like scenario and explores the world — including sex — with total uninhibitedness. For some readers, that reads as liberating and feminist; for others, it raises questions about whether Bella’s “freedom” is itself a male fantasy constructed by her male creator. The novel is also controversial in literary circles for its use of a male author ventriloquising a female voice, and for the way it positions Bella’s perspective through a memoir written by a man who loves her. These tensions are built into the novel deliberately — Gray is asking exactly those uncomfortable questions. But the controversy comes from how effectively it works: the book implicates the reader before they realise it.

Poor Things was written by Alasdair Gray, a Scottish writer and artist first published in 1992. Gray was as much an illustrator as a novelist — he designed the book himself, including the distinctive woodcut-style images drawn from Gray’s Anatomy that punctuate the text. His writing blends dark humor, gothic elements, and sharp social commentary, with a unique formal inventiveness: unreliable narrators, documents within documents, and illustrations that comment on the text. Poor Things won both the Whitbread Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1992. If you want to read more of his work, see the full Alasdair Gray reading guide →

Poor Things resists easy categorisation, which is part of its appeal. At its core it is gothic fiction — there is a haunting atmosphere, a resurrection at its centre, and a deep preoccupation with what it means to be human. But it is also sharp satire, skewering Victorian society’s treatment of women, science, and class. It draws on literary fiction traditions, with layered themes and a formal structure that rewards close reading. And it has elements of fantasy, particularly in the way Gray blurs the line between the realistic and the dreamlike. The closest single comparison is probably Frankenstein — which is not a coincidence. Gray was consciously reworking Mary Shelley’s novel from a feminist perspective. If you enjoy books in that territory, see the full list of books like Poor Things →

Poor Things is not a true story. It is a work of fiction — entirely a product of Alasdair Gray’s imagination. However, the novel deliberately blurs that line. Gray frames it as a found manuscript, edited and introduced as if it were a historical document, complete with footnotes and archival illustrations. Part of the novel’s trick is making you momentarily believe you might be reading something real. The questions it raises about identity, freedom, and self-discovery are grounded in universal human experience, which is what gives the fictional story its emotional weight.

The timeline in Poor Things is deliberately non-linear, and that is part of its charm. It begins in late 19th-century Edinburgh, where Bella Baxter is resurrected by Dr. McCandless. From there the story jumps between key moments in Bella’s life — her time with McCandless, her elopement with the lawyer Duncan Wedderburn, her travels through Europe — before arriving at a final section that reframes everything that came before. The shifting timeline mirrors how we discover ourselves: slowly, through experience and contradiction, rather than in a straight line.

Bella Baxter is 25 years old in the novel.

Poor Things (2023), directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, with Willem Dafoe as the eccentric Dr. Godwin Baxter, and Mark Ruffalo as Duncan Wedderburn, a hedonistic lawyer. The cast also includes Ramy Youssef as Max McCandless, Jerrod Carmichael as Harry Astley, Christopher Abbott as Alfie Blessington, Margaret Qualley as Felicity, Kathryn Hunter as Madame Swiney, and Hanna Schygulla as Martha Von Kurtzroc. The film blends dark comedy, surrealism, and feminist themes, brought to life by a powerful ensemble.