Review: The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd

Synopsis from LibraryThing:

Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as
a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal
that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her
father’s gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing
his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the
accusations are true.

Accompanied by her father’s handsome young
assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is
deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her
father’s madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak,
and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is
killing the island’s inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity,
Juliet knows she must end her father’s dangerous experiments and escape her
jungle prison before it’s too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she
discovers the extent of her father’s genius—and madness—in her own
blood.

Inspired by H. G. Wells’s classic “The Island of Dr. Moreau”, “The
Madman’s Daughter” is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets
we’ll do anything to know and the truths we’ll go to any lengths to protect.

My Review:

This is a very haunting tale, that had me so engrossed in the story and ended with me wanting to know more. Imagine my surprise and happiness to learn that this is the first book in a trilogy set. Typically, I don’t read series/trilogy books, unless the whole set is available. Why? Because I hate waiting!! And, now I will have to wait!

The story is based on an older version of The Island of Dr. Moreau, by H.G. Wells. It was eerie and while I had some ideas as to where the story was going to go, I still loved reading the story and trying to figure out what would happen to Montgomery, Edward, and Juliet, in the end.

There were times I was reminded of the movie, Jurassic Park, with all the animal manipulations and research a crazy mad scientist was inventing. While it was different on some levels, the premise was the same: inventor designs creation, creation performs to inventor’s expectations, inventor gets greedy, creations rebel against inventor. Sound easy enough, right? Wrong!!! While that is the basic premise, don’t let that sway you from reading this book! It’s a fascinating sci-fi thriller and Megan leaves the reader wanting to read more!! So, I’m with the rest of those readers, who loved the book….waiting to get a hold of the 2nd book!!

*This book was provided by my local library, through overdrive.com!! I love overdrive.com and that I can download local library books directly onto my reader!