The Madman's Daughter (Madman's Daughter, #1)

by Megan Shepherd

[Stephanie]

This book sounded so awesome. A dark and gritty premise about a mad scientist who continues his work on a remote island. Sounds good, right? For some reason I was thinking it would be something like Shutter Island, but it's not, or wasn't for me.

Me and The Madman's Daughter had a very roller coaster type relationship. Very up and down. I was enjoying it for the most part in the beginning. But then Edward came into the story. I obviously didn't read the summary very thoroughly because I didn't realize there was going to be ANOTHER boy involved other than Montgomery. I didn't see the point in Edward, other than another love interest for Juliet, which made this one big love triangle.

Now, usually love triangles don't bother me. It doesn't keep me from reading a book. I actually enjoy love triangles. But this one didn't work for me and made it difficult for me to enjoy the story most of the time. I would have enjoyed the The Madman's Daughter a lot more if it only focused on Montgomery and Juliet's relationship because I liked them as a couple and I was rooting for them the whole time. I was enjoying the story when it was just those two.

Don't get me wrong though, Edward does give more to the story towards the end as we learn his side of the story, but I figured out his big secret about halfway through. Which is not a good thing for this book, because when I figured it out, I was hoping I was wrong. But I won't go into that anymore because I don't want to spoil anything.

I did really enjoy reading about Juliet's dad and what he had created while on the island. It was really interesting to see how these animal creatures saw him as a god and how they lived. I also LOVED Balthazar and his relationship with Montgomery. These two were the reason I really continued to read. I felt so sorry for Balthazar and I just wanted to hug him even though he is half dog half sheep or whatever. And I loved Montgomery because he cared for all the weird animal creatures and became friends with them.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about Juliet though. Sometimes I really enjoyed her and like how she was a strong character who did things here way. But then other times I found myself not really caring what happened to her.

What I wasn't prepared for, though, was the scenes were animals were being operated on, while they were awake! I am a big animal lover, I don't do books or movies where I know the animals die. I just can't do it and I don't like it. Therefore, you can bet I was somewhat upset when about 50 pages in, Juliet has to chop off a rabbits head to get it out of it's misery because she caught some boys operating on it. I did get used to it though, and came to expect it, so it wasn't too bad as I went on.

The Madman's Daughter also moved a little slow for me. I think part of this had to do with the fact that I didn't like Edward, so whenever he was in a scene, I lost interest. I also skimmed a few pages towards the end because I wanted to actually get to the good stuff.

So, I don't think this review is making a lot of sense, but that sums up my relationship with this book. At one point the story would be very interesting, but then a while later, I would find it to be kind of dull.

Also, THE ENDING! The ending makes me all kinds of mad and nobody should be allowed to end a book that way. I don't know if I hate the ending or love it.