Review - The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd

Series: The Madman’s Daughter #1

Published by Balzer + Bray on January 29 2013

Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Horror, Paranormal, Historical Fiction

Pages: 420

Rating: 3/5 stars

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.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book. It really hooked me in and I thought that the Juliet we meet in London was a fascinating character – she was smart and different and a little macabre, and I liked that. However, things took a turn for the worst when we were introduced to Love Interest #1, Montgomery. Suddenly a cruel scientist was trying to rape Juliet and she was cutting him with a cleaning tool and then off we go on a ship heading towards Australia. We meet Love Interest #2, Edward, on said ship and things just start to get simultaneously weird and boring, which is quite a feat in and of itself. This whole section of the book was just very rushed and disjointed.

By the time we hit the halfway point, I was thoroughly unimpressed by Juliet. I loved that she had a dark side, but she was very angst-y about it. She wanted to be absolutely nothing like her father, which for some reason meant that she couldn’t be interested in science. It didn’t really make sense to me, especially the explanation given towards the end of the book for her stranger inclinations. I like characters who embrace that darker edge to them. I also really wanted Juliet to make up her mind about where she stood regarding the ‘monsters’. Were they beasts or humans? Was killing them considered murder or not? How could she pick and choose which ones were more human than the others and apply her human morality only to those select few? I know I worded that very strangely, but I’m not sure how else to phrase it. Her attachment to Balthazar and the snakey guy pissed me off because the way I see it, if you accept one or two, you have to accept them all.

Juliet spent a vast amount of time worrying about which boy she most wanted to kiss, when she clearly had much bigger problems on her hands – namely the monster roaming the island killing people. No big deal though, right? My main problem was that the love interests were so freaking boring. I honestly didn’t find myself rooting for either of them, though I disliked Edward more than Montgomery. I suppose that makes me Team Montgomery? No thank you. Team Get-Juliet-The-Hell-Away-From-These-Psychos is more my speed. For the most part, the characters (with the exception of Dr. Moreau) are all very modern, with 21^st century ideas and beliefs, which didn’t cohere well with the Victorian setting. I had some qualms with the chosen time period, as it didn’t seem to add much to the book. Due to the vast majority of the book taking place on a more or less deserted island, the Victorian element doesn’t really come into play much and it felt a bit wasted.

The only characters I actually liked were the maid and the experiment-man gone rogue. They were cool and interesting, though by the end of the book one of them was dead and the other couldn’t speak.

Having not read The Island of Doctor Moreau, upon which this book is based, I only vaguely knew what was going to happen (most of the time). I knew the general idea, but nothing beyond that. That said, there was at least one thing that really worked for me in The Madman’s Daughter, and that was the atmosphere. This book had some seriously creepy moments, and despite the major issues I had with it, I sped through it. I thought the writing was solid, and am interested to see what else Megan Shepherd can produce in the years to come. Though I saw the twists coming miles away (this from someone who doesn’t usually pick up on these things!), I think I’ll give Book Two a chance. We’ll see. Hopefully that one will be more gothic horror story and less YA love triangle.

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

Series: Standalone

Published by Random House on August 20 2013

Genres: Mystery, Adult Fiction,

Pages: 602

Rating: 5/5 stars

WILDLY IMAGINATIVE, ADDICTIVELY IMMERSIVE, BREATHTAKINGLY SUSPENSEFUL. 

Everybody has a Cordova story. Cult horror director Stanislas Cordova hasn't been seen in public since 1977. To his fans he is an engima. To journalist Scott McGrath he is the enemy. To Ashley he was a father. 

On a damp October night the body of young, beautiful Ashley Cordova is found in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Her suicide appears to be the latest tragedy to hit a severely cursed dynasty. 

For McGrath, another death connected to the legendary director seems more than a coincidence. Driven by revenge, curiosity and a need for the truth, he finds himself pulled into a hypnotic, disorientating world, where almost everyone seems afraid. 

The last time McGrath got close to exposing Cordova, he lost his marriage and his career. This time he could lost his grip on reality. 

ONCE WE FACE OUR DEEPEST FEARS, WHAT LIES ON THE OTHER SIDE?

I don’t really like mystery novels. I’m not drawn to them the way I am to fantasy or contemporary. This may be partially because I’m dreadful at figuring out what is going on before it is all explained to me, which makes me feel kind of dumb. A regular Sherlock Holmes I am not. So I was surprised to discover that I really, really wanted to read Night Film. So much so that when I saw it on my cart at the library whilst shelving books, I knew that I had to check it out and start reading it right away, despite the five or six other library books awaiting me at home. I started reading it that night, and finished it the next afternoon.

This book was a lot of things, but it was never boring. I thought that Pessl did a marvellous job of keeping the pacing up through such a hefty book – this thing is just over six hundred pages long! I had no idea what to expect, but I was not ready for it to get so freaking creepy – I read the scenes at The Peak at two in the morning when I was home alone, and my heart nearly jumped out of my chest when my mum got home and knocked on my door. I couldn’t bear to put it down until I knew that everyone was safe (at least for the time being).

Some of the reviews I’ve read mentioned being disappointed by the ending, which I completely understand. The ending of Night Film isn’t for everyone, but it worked for me. I liked the ambiguity, the way that everything wasn’t wrapped up nicely with a shiny red bow. I liked that there was room for interpretation, that like the characters we can choose to believe whichever story works best for us as readers. It actually reminds me a little bit of the ending of Yan Martel’s Life of Pi in that sense.

The only thing I didn’t care for about Night Film was the protagonist. I never really gave a damn about Scott McGrath. I never felt more than lukewarm about him as a character, whereas the rest of the cast were excellent – I loved Hopper and Nora and most of all Ashley. I think the problem I had with Scott was that he thought very highly of himself and was judgemental of everyone else. He was also a pretty crappy father. He viewed Sam as an afterthought, as an inconvenience. I completely understand why Cynthia made the decision she made and I don’t think that Scott deserved her forgiveness. I wish there would have been more character development on Scott’s part. He was just as obsessed with Cordova, to the detriment of every other aspect of his life, at the end of the book as he was at the beginning. Also, I don’t understand how he had so much money to throw around. He’s a disgraced journalist, so it’s not like he’s had steady work over the last few years…

Finally, it’s impossible to write a review of Night Film without mentioning Pessl’s use of multi-media. Throughout the book there are news articles and blog posts and photographs and web pages all created (or doctored) just for this book. Some of the images are truly haunting, and it really added to the experience. It’s hard to believe that Stanislas Cordova is not a real person and that his films and fanbase are entirely fictitious. I really commend what Pessl has created with this book, and am interested to see what she does next (also I need to check out her first book, as I hear it caused quite a stir and received many accolades when it was released).