Howard Boward, a 13-year-old boy-genius with a chip on his shoulder is too smart for his own good. He has troubles making friendsβpossibly because he complains so much. Until one day a science experiment goes haywire, and Howard creates a best friend for himselfβFranklinβwho also happens to be a monster. Creating Franklin was an accident, not like Howard was playing God or anythingβor so Howard tells himself. Franklin and Howard are having so much fun, Howard decides to create more βfriends,β using DNA from kids at school. Only, these friends arenβt quite as friendly. Soon thereβs a major mess and Howard has to sort it all out before the monsters destroy their human counterparts. But terminating the monsters proves harder than he imagined. They didnβt choose to be monsters; they canβt go against their innate nature. Howard finds himself facing consequences for playing God. Getting rid of the monsters means learning to tame his own inner beast, and Howard begins to understand the meaning of free will and true friendship