The Madman's Daughter (The Madman's Daughter, #1) in Pick-a-Shelf

Apr 30, 2013 Susan rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, young-adult, series, science-fiction

This book is inspired by H. G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau: the protagonist is Moreau's daughter Juliet, and the book is told in her voice. I was afraid the horrific parts might be too much for me, but I was so absorbed in what Juliet was thinking and feeling that that proved not to be the case.

Shepherd's storytelling style is straightforward, and whisks the reader along with a lot of action, but with plenty of time for dialogue and for introspection as well. It raises the question of wh ...more

Like · see review

Aug 01, 2017 emily rated it liked it

Shelves: family-drama, fiction-historical, audiobook, thrillers-and-suspense, retellings-and-homages, sci-fi, 2017, monsters-and-monstrosities

3.5 stars, rounding down to 3 because I'm trying to be a little stricter about my ratings, and I'm not sure this book truly deserves a "really liked it". I did like it-- I finished it, despite what I consider some pretty serious pitfalls, and I plan on reading the other 2 in the series, despite an infuriating ending.

First of all, let me acknowledge that I am a sucker for retellings / books inspired by classics. And though I've never read the Island of Dr Moreau, I enjoy most of the gothic lit I 3.5 stars, rounding down to 3 because I'm trying to be a little stricter about my ratings, and I'm not sure this book truly deserves a "really liked it". I did like it-- I finished it, despite what I consider some pretty serious pitfalls, and I plan on reading the other 2 in the series, despite an infuriating ending.

First of all, let me acknowledge that I am a sucker for retellings / books inspired by classics. And though I've never read the Island of Dr Moreau, I enjoy most of the gothic lit I've read, and was really excited by the spooky atmosphere the jacket copy and cover art implied about this retelling. I was especially intrigued knowing the other two in the trilogy were intended to cover Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Frankenstein, both of which I have read and enjoyed a lot. And spooky is a good word to describe the feel of the book, pretty much from the get-go. Megan Shepherd paints London in all its soot-stained glory, and when Juliet trades the city for the jungle, the feeling of foreboding just increases.

It's that growing suspense that got me through the rest of the book, rolling through a pretty heavy-handed dose of teen angst between Juliet and both the available young men in the story-- Montgomery, who had been her family's servant in her childhood and is now her father's assistant, and Edward, who they find lost at sea en route to the island. It's a bit of a murky love triangle, since she seems mostly physically attracted to both of them at first, and I wonder if getting laid wouldn't have cleared things up faster for her regarding her emotions? However, basically everyone is lying to Juliet about something, and some people are lying to her about everything, so her back-and-forth between Montgomery and Edward is at least in some part understandable, as even I felt like I was watching a tennis match after awhile.

My big gripe with the book, honestly, is with Dr. Moreau and his role as the villain. He's pretty one note; from the get-go he's cold and cruel and it's obvious Juliet's hopes for a tender reconciliation are unfounded. He's not sympathetic at all, and the more the book goes on, the more you just hate him and want him to meet a bloody end at the claws of one of his own monsters.

The monsters, however, are one of the other reasons I kept reading-- I wanted to get to the bottom of who was a hybrid, who wasn't, and what they were ultimately going to do about their own existence. I was surprised that some of the hybrids were more emotionally complex than some of the human characters, and was disappointed in the use of the Lysine contingency (if you'll forgive the reference) bc it felt like a cop-out, dodging the question of the creatures' self-awareness and self-determination. It underscored Moreau as a total asshole, which was fine, but I was kind of bummed to know that Ajax and the others would just revert.

All in all I enjoyed this book but felt like a retelling of the Island of Dr Moreau could've gone further in giving a new take on the story. There are still no people of color and no queer representation in it, and it's told from the POV of an able-bodied straight white woman, which means some of the commentary on humanity / monstrosity / what makes someone a person / etc is just not delved into because the story is focusing on her love triangle instead. From reading the jacket copy for the two sequels I anticipate that focus will endure, but I'm hoping with a move to source material that deals much more heavily with those themes, there'll be some more substance along with the angst. ...more

Like · see review