The Daughter of Doctor Moreau; Silvia Moreno-Garcia

I’m familiar with the Island of Doctor Moreau in the way that most people are: I’ve heard of it, know the basic story of a mad scientist doctor making human/animal hybrids through vivisection, and that’s about it. It’s a “classic” so of course I haven’t read it cover to cover. But that didn’t stop me from being intrigued by the re-imagining of said classic with the added bonus of the doctor’s daughter (who doesn’t exist in the original). When you add that it's set in a historical fiction backdrop during nineteenth century Mexico, and the conflict between the native Maya population and the Spanish/European colonizers, then I'm sold! With that setting, Doctor Moreau’s hybrids have a much more chilling, and all too real, purpose: a form of slave labor to the wealthy landowner and patron of our mad doctor. The writing was lovely and I thought fit the time period the book is set in perfectly, and I loved the parallels made between the hybrids and how most indigenous populations are treated by colonizers. So why didn’t I love this book?

---

Simply: everything about it was slow. I’m all for slow burn stories, but the creepy intrigue around the hacienda and the creatures lurking in the shadows was only gripping for so long before it became a bit old hat. The mystique around Carlota and even the tortured history of Montgomery was all intriguing—to start. But it quickly became repetitive with how often Montgomery laments his sister and composes letters to the wife who left him, how meek and demure Carlota was by design gets shoved in your face so often that she becomes rather boring. The age gap between the two characters, which leads to them having known each other 6+ years, is necessary to avoid a kind of ick factor, but Montgomery acts like he didn’t watch Carlota grow up, either. So, the “twist” and the big reveal later wasn’t really all that surprising? It was so expected to me that, with the history Montgomery and Carlota had, I was surprised that really any one of these characters was surprised at the revelation. Perhaps if it didn’t feel as if it took far too long for things to start happening I wouldn’t have minded the twist falling flat, but as it was, it felt like too little payout for how long it took to get the reader there.

By the end, Carlota frustrated me and Montgomery became too static, but I loved Lupe. The ending was a bit lackluster as well, given how slow it felt to get to any kind of resolution. There was no slow burn romance either, unless the author meant “passions” as a more “strong emotions” type definition in the synopsis, but still, I was expecting more of… something to materialize and it just didn’t, hence the 3 stars. Again, I think the writing was very lovely and the historical fiction aspects of the story were done very well, so I’m definitely interested in reading more by this author, this just perhaps wasn’t the right book for me to start with.