Review - Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd

Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd

Series: The Madman’s Daughter #2

Published by Balzer + Bray on January 28 2014

Genres: horror, historical fiction, young adult

Pages: 420

Rating: 3/5 stars

To defeat the darkness, she must first embrace it. 

Months have passed since Juliet Moreau returned to civilization after escaping her father's island—and the secrets she left behind. Now, back in London once more, she is rebuilding the life she once knew and trying to forget Dr. Moreau’s horrific legacy—though someone, or something, hasn’t forgotten her. 

As people close to Juliet fall victim one by one to a murderer who leaves a macabre calling card of three clawlike slashes, Juliet fears one of her father’s creations may have also escaped the island. She is determined to find the killer before Scotland Yard does, though it means awakening sides of herself she had thought long banished, and facing loves from her past she never expected to see again. 

As Juliet strives to stop a killer while searching for a serum to cure her own worsening illness, she finds herself once more in the midst of a world of scandal and danger. Her heart torn in two, past bubbling to the surface, life threatened by an obsessive killer—Juliet will be lucky to escape alive. 

With inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, this is a tantalizing mystery about the hidden natures of those we love and how far we’ll go to save them from themselves.

I probably shouldn’t have read this book.

I was drawn in by the near-pristine beauty of it at the library – I don’t often encounter library books that look brand new, and I was tricked by the prettiness. It’s too bad that the actual content of these books isn’t as great as their gorgeous covers.

I had high hopes for Her Dark Curiosity, though I’m not entirely sure why. I didn’t particularly enjoy The Madman’s Daughter, for a variety of reasons.  Namely, Juliet’s idiocy and the completely unnecessary love triangle. But I thought, maybe book two will be better. Maybe Juliet will start to use her brain and stop whining all the time and kick those stupid miserable boys to the curb. Also, I was under the (incorrect) assumption that 1/3 of said love triangle was dead, because I’m an idiot who indulges in wishful thinking.

But oh no. None of my hopes were answered by this book. I was delighted to find that this book was supposed to be loosely based on/inspired by The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I’m a big fan. Unfortunately, they really meant loosely. There are a few elements of Jekyll and Hyde present, but it’s minimal. The reintroduction of the love interest who isn’t Montgomery (I want to say his name is William or Edward, because everyone in Victorian London was called William or Edward) wasn’t much of a shocker, and I honestly don’t think it even merits a spoiler tag. Let me know if you disagree, but it was pretty obvious, though I tried to convince myself otherwise in case sheer willpower prevented it from happening. Sigh. The love triangle really gets amped up in this book. Compared to Her Dark Curiosity, it is merely a slight annoyance in The Madman’s Daughter. There is just so much drama between Juliet and Montgomery and William-Edward and I don’t understand it at all because they’re both absolute dickheads! I’ll pass, thank you.

The ‘plot’ of Her Dark Curiosity is surprisingly sparse. I honestly don’t remember much of the plot that didn’t revolve around a) the love triangle, b) Juliet’s angst over her condition/finding a remedy, or c) further angst over William-Edward’s escalating murderous split personality disorder. I think the main problem I have with sympathizing with these plights is that I just completely disagree with everything that Juliet stands for. If I were in her shoes, William-Edward would be properly dead by now (and I would have zero desire to bring him back to life Frankenstein-style, thank you very much!). Oh! I remembered one other plot-y thing – Juliet discovers that she’s caught up in a big ol’ conspiracy and then (SPOILER) kills a bunch of people using electricity and lab creatures. She also scars her best (well, only) friend for life in the process, but who needs friends when you have Montgomery and William-Edward, right??

Given the nature of this review, it might be surprising that I gave this book three stars. I actually did enjoy certain parts of the book. I’m a big fan of Shepherd’s writing style. It is very descriptive without turning purple, and I think she really succeeds in creating a neo-Gothic novel, in style if not in form. I also really love Juliet’s dark side. She doesn’t let it out as often as I’d like, but I think that the fact that she has a serious violent streak is wonderful. I think that she could be a truly remarkable character if she just toned down the altruism a little bit. She reminds me a bit of Allie from Julie Kagawa’s Blood of Eden trilogy in that sense. She has the potential to be a total badass, but she is just too nice.

Considering how much grief this series has caused me, you’d think I’d back out and abstain from the likely torment of A Cold Legacy, but you would be wrong. I’ve already invested enough time in this series that I might as well see it through, right? Besides, maybe Frankenstein William-Edward will be less angsty than the current version. On a side note: how many times can this dude be killed off? WHY DON’T YOU JUST TAKE THE HINT AND STAY DEAD? NOBODY LIKES YOU. I am interested to see the setting shift once again, this time from urban London to the Scottish countryside. I think that setting is definitely one of Shepherd’s strong suits.

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.

Review - Feed by Mira Grant

Feed by Mira Grant

Series: Newsflesh Trilogy #1

Published by Orbit on May 1 2010

Genres: New Adult, Horror, Dystopian

Pages: 571 (906 minutes)

Rating: 4/5 stars

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED. Now, twenty years after the Rising, bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives - the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will get out, even if it kills them.

I tried to read Feed on four different occasions before finally sticking to it and seeing it to the end – apparently what I needed was a really great audiobook, narrated brilliantly by Paula Christenson and Jesse Bernstein, to truly get into it. That isn’t to say that I didn’t like it upon my other attempts. I did, I just got distracted somewhere along the way each time. This go around I listened to the fifteen hour audiobook in about two and a half days. I got into it this time, in a big way. There was nothing for me not to like – zombies, politics, and blogging all in one book? Count me in!

Despite some flaws, I really loved listening to Feed. It caught my attention and didn’t let go of it, and I quickly grew to love the characters for all of their strengths and their faults. They are what fictional characters should be – fully rounded people with all of the intricacies that are involved in being a human being.

I actually liked the weird, super-dependent relationship between Georgia and Shaun. It’s not something you see very often – it’s clear that their environment growing up led them to be distrustful of anyone who isn’t each other. I’d be pretty jaded if I had their parents, too.

Even the secondary characters were depicted as real people – I became quite attached to the likes of Steve, Rick, Buffy, and even Senator Ryman (I consider Shaun as much a main character as Georgia). The only character that I thought could have used work was Governor Tate. (SPOILER AHEAD) It was clear from the very beginning that he was the primary villain, and I would have liked a more interesting motivation that religious fanaticism. I get that it’s completely possible and even perhaps likely, but it’s nothing new – it’s a stale bit as far as zombie fiction goes.

This is the way that I like my zombies – enmeshed in the atmosphere and part of the background. They pose an element of risk and influence the events of the story, but they themselves are not the focus. It’s not about the zombies – it’s about the people. I’ve had a lot of exposure to zombie stories – I took an entire class revolving around them – and this is one of my favourites. It isn’t as misogynistic as some of its contemporaries (I’m looking at you, The Walking Dead), though it certainly isn’t without its own issues in that area – most notably the treatment of Senator Ryman’s female opponent, whose recent acquisition of a new, enlarged pair of breasts is mentioned and derided repeatedly by Georgia. It is obvious that no one takes her seriously as competition to Senator Ryman. There is also a statement that Tate makes about Georgia, though it’s different when it’s explicitly a character being malicious, not woven into the narrative.

The end of the book, as many other reviewers have stated, is absolutely heartbreaking. I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried on multiple occasions.