Her Dark Curiosity (Madman's Daughter, #2)

by Megan Shepherd

[Angie]

While I still very much enjoyed Her Dark Curiosity, it was nowhere near as addicting as the first book. It's several months later and Juliet has been taken in by a family friend. She's back in society's good graces, but she's living a double life. She has all of the comforts she could ever dream of, but Juliet still rents a dank attic, where she's working on a cure for her illness. The serum her father created for her is no longer worker as she gets further into womanhood, but she can't seem to get a new one right. Then, there's a string of murders, and all of the victims are connect to Juliet in some way. When she learns of it, she knows that someone from her past has come back for her.

Her Dark Curiosity started off really good. It's clear that Juliet is struggling, and it's not just the physical ailments from her failing treatments. Her mind is preoccupied with what she did on the island and she's having trouble coming to terms with her cruelty. There's also the small matter of her knowing one way to increase the likelihood of her creating a successful treatment: fresher ingredients. She has moments where she does consider resulting to her father's methods, but luckily she keeps a grip on her sanity and leaves her dog alone. I loved her conflicts though! She still thinks her father's work was amazing, but it was also wrong. She fears she'll succumb to the same curiosity and madness as him.

But then, the plot switches. Her Dark Curiosity wound up feeling more like a murder mystery than anything else. Of course, we know who the murderer is from the very beginning, but there's something else at play here. It did end up being quite predictable like The Madman's Daughter, which annoyed me at times. I figured out who was involved early on, and it was just a matter of waiting for the why. There's also a reveal that all of the characters were shocked about, even though it was something I figured out in the first book! It is seriously super obvious and yet, no one had thought of it? I don't think so. The ending was also eerily similar to the first book with Juliet causing mass destruction, then running off to another country.

I still really liked her Her Dark Curiosity despite my complaints. It still had that dark, creepy vibe, but it wasn't nearly as disturbing or engaging. The first half is much better than the second, but it did leave me super curious about what's to come.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.