“Her Dark Curiosity”, by Megan Shepherd, is the second book belonging to the Madman’s Daughter Trilogy. After escaping the island where her father was performing secret experiments that could change the world, she returns back to London to rebuild her life and forget about the awful sights she witnessed on the island. The story closely mirrors Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Hyde with its own twists, which adds a familiarity to the story.
“Her Dark Curiosity” to me, seems to be a lot more over-dramatic than the first novel in the trilogy. Main character, Juliet Moreau seems to know the repercussions of father’s experiments, yet she is drawn to vivisection and finding a cure for one of his creatures who followed her back to London. She has no sort of character development and seems to always use the excuse of the “animal inside of her” to justify her likeness to her father’s madness. She clings around to a serial killer and believes she can somehow save him using the science that got her father banished from London in the first place. However, I do love how Shepherd explores the humanity within the beast/Edward from the island. “I want to be just a man, that’s all, who isn’t marked with bruises, who can walk the streets without worry that he’ll kill someone.” He swallowed, as his hands again closed over mine. “Who can love you as you deserve to be loved.” Shepherd not only gets the reader to hate the beast, but also to root for him at the exact same time.
Shepherd does do a great job with the predictability of the novel. Beside the cliche “I love them both” romance, every other aspect of the book comes to the readers as a surprise and the mystery only continues to go deeper more sinister as the novel continues on.
I would recommend this story to others because it is full of twists and turns, and a reader can definitely overlook the romance within the novel. Unlike of YA reads, it doesn’t just focus on a love triangle, but with a dark science that keeps readers at the edge of their seats.
No comments:
Post a Comment