Ry Shelley is a doctor and a transgender man. He identifies as a “hybrid,” combining elements of femininity and masculinity in his physical appearance, but he does not explicitly note specific pronoun use. When Ry tells Ron: “I didn’t feel comfortable as a woman” (85), he distances himself from feminine identification, and Ry prefers when characters refer to him as a man and use his preferred name: Ry. Consistently, other characters in the novel intentionally misgender or misname Ry, such as Ron calling Ry “Ryan,” or Claire and Ron calling him “Mary.” In each instance, these characters are disrespecting Ry, but a critical element of Ry’s character is his resilience in the face of transphobia. Ry rarely acknowledges the misgendering or misnaming, instead focusing on the task at hand or changing the topic of conversation. This pattern in Ry’s behavior reflects both his strength and the basic fact of transphobia in modern society.

Ry is the contemporary protagonist in the novel, as Mary Shelley is the historical protagonist. Because the novel operates in two time periods, Ry serves as an analog to Mary’s historical existence. Ry and Mary share the same birth name, though Ry does not use the name “Mary,” and they face a similar obsession with Victor Frankenstein/Victor Stein.