The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

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

by Megan Shepherd

Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid and trying to forget 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's alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she's determined to find out if the accusations were true.

Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward, Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the secret of her father's new life: he experiments on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. 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 Doctor 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.

Reviewed by limabean74 on

4 of 5 stars

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This review contains some spoilers, the major ones are hidden, but if you haven't read this book please read this review with caution, I just honestly couldn't write this review with out them.


My Review:


This is a tough one to review but I am going to do my best, I had a few issues but overall I enjoyed it. I have to tell you first that this review will contain spoilers but I am going to hide the major ones so please read with caution.

I have never read the Island of Dr. Moreau (or Monroe like I kept calling it) however I have cliff noted the book a few times so I know the general story and the characters that are involved. So when I started this book I had an idea of what was going to happen or at least how the story may play out. The story, I loved it, I think it is a great retelling of the original story keeping with the theme and having the outcome pretty much stay the same the only difference, sort of, is that Juliet isn’t in the original. The story starts in London and then goes to the island, I enjoyed the world build and the idea of this mysterious island and the secrets that it kept. I didn't have a problem with the island, I liked the island, I had a problem with the main character Juliet.

Oh Juliet where do I start, why so narrow minded? Why was it that the differences in the villagers were such a problem? I know that your father made crazy things but the Dog Bear guy was a sweet heart and it wasn’t his fault he was a Dog Bear guy that was your father’s fault. I just felt like she was SO judgmental on all the “creations” on the island and even after getting to know a few she was still so heartless to them. I did like her but I didn’t, it didn’t stop me from reading the book and it wont stop me from reading the next one but GOOD GRAVY she was annoying. Some of the things going on were so obvious to me and yet it didn’t seem to click with her. My biggest problem with her was her lack of sympathy for animals to her they were just object or things that didn’t have feelings so what her father was doing was creating monsters. However it wasn’t the poor animals fault yet she looks down on them like she was better and higher than them. Maybe in a way she was but she just came off as very stuck up. I have such mixed feeling about her, its mind boggling how I can tell you all the reasons she frustrated me but yet I liked her, like seriously I liked her.

Montgomery was my favorite of the two guys, he had a mystery about him but you can tell he really cared for the animal creature beings and loved Juliet. He was torn between pleasing her father and being in love with her but because she was a higher class than him and extremely frustrating, her father hated the match he preferred her with Edward. I however did not, something about him from the moment we meet on the boat..not me and him of course but I felt he was a bit off. Something just irked me about him and how he was. He was very quiet and as much as he seemed to like Juliet I wasn’t a fan of him and her. He was ok as a character and gave the triangle that two good guys angle that always makes it hard to pick who you want her with but I couldn’t see that working in my mind. The book has a major triangle that really has me one sided the entire time.

The triangle was a triangle but wasn’t a triangle because as things started to fall apart on the island she winds up not being with either of them. THE ENTIRE BOOK I THOUGHT IT WAS A TRIANGLE BUT IT WASN’T or was it? This frustrated me since I was assuming things were going to happen with them and it just, pffft nope sorry no triangle for you.

Her father was an idiot (I see were she gets if from) He wanted to play god by creating this creatures, the ones that seems more intelligent he sent to the village on the island the other that came out “wrong” stayed with him as he cared for them or Montgomery really cared for them and treated them like family.

When all hell breaks lose on the island and things start to fall apart. Juliet has some major choices to make and finds out some pretty messed up stuff. I’m not going to say what it was even in a spoiler, if you read the book you know what I mean. I felt bad for her but it was all coming down around them and she was still a JERK about the Creature people being monsters, yet she knew Balthazar the sweetest creature dog bear guy. She was determined to let him die on the island only because he wasn’t human but he could pass for one.

Did you cheer like a crazy person like I did when Montgomery stuck her butt on a boat and said see ya! I was like GOOD FOR YOU Montgomery, she was just an asshat, I just thought she didn’t really deserve Montgomery he was really to good for her, at this point whether he was dead or not she didn’t deserve animal boy Edward either. But remember I liked her she just was not for them

So regardless of the major issues I had with Juliet I really enjoyed this story. 4 stars was pretty much my rating the entire time I was reading. It’s a great retelling of the original story and has a great number of Twists and turns that will leave you guess and an end that will make you want to know what happens next. Cliffhanger? Why yes it was, well sort of, I think. If you get a chance to read this book come back and comment so we can chat about it or hit me up on twitter I just need to know if I was the only one that felt the same way as what I wrote in the second spoiler ;)

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Thank you so much for stopping by to check out my review

Hope you have a great day and Happy Reading!

This review was originally posted on Because reading is better than real life

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 7 January, 2015: Finished reading
  • 7 January, 2015: Reviewed