I cannot express how amazing the whole Madman’s Daughter trilogy is. If you aren’t afraid of some gore and frightening scenes, I would recommend this to anyone wholeheartedly. This whole series is a retelling of H.G Wells amazing science fiction novel, the Island of Dr. Moreau. In this series, he had a daughter and a wife before he really delved into his work, and he abandoned them both to work on his horrible human-animal creations.
After the events of the first book, Juliet is in London where her symptoms are worsening. She is almost constantly overtaken by tremors as her body is trying to reject the animal organs that her father put in her when she was a baby. Without the full-power injections and cure that only her father knew about, she is rendered helpless as she searches tirelessly for a way to live a normal life. An elderly professor who had known her father took her in and takes care of her since both of her legal guardians have died. She thinks it is only a matter of time before she follows them both.
Edward is one of her father’s most lethal creations. A living Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he turns from a quiet timid gentleman to a bloodthirsty beast in a matter of seconds, and it is becoming harder and harder for him to fight it off. Juliet thinks that she left him on the island to die, but somehow he has escaped and is begging for her to help him find a cure. He is still infatuated with her, and with Montgomery seemingly out of the picture the two become closer and closer, until the Beast begins to interfere with things. The Beast loves Juliet as well, and would never kill her, but can hurt her and kills people who have hurt her or who try to take her away from him.
Spoilers Ahead (NOT the end of the book though)
Montgomery returns, he wants to see Juliet again, and Edward is succumbing to the Beast day by day. Edward is simply jealous of Montgomery for stealing most of Juliet’s love, however the Beast wants to murder him in order to take the girl he desires. Montgomery struggles to help Juliet and Edward try to find cures for their ailments, but it is difficult trying to maintain the Beast/Edward. Juliet feels guilty as she has fallen for both men at one time or another, and the Beast keeps talking to her telling her that she too is a monster.
Spoilers Over
I wanted to go to sleep early last night. I had read about 50 pages of this approximately 400 page book before yesterday, and I read another 200 in classes after finishing testing yesterday. I was exhausted after a full day of school yesterday and got into bed around 9 PM, planning to read a little more and then go to sleep by 10. This, of course, did not happen. I instead went to sleep around 11:30 because I got to a part of the book where I simply had to keep reading it. I love this series despite not being a super fan of stories with any horror or even slight gore in them, and I will probably end up finishing the last book tomorrow after I get it from my school library.
The biggest issue I had with the book was the Edward/Juliet slight relationship close to the beginning of the novel. I disliked the idea that she would be with a creature that could possibly snap and hurt her. The Beast was in love with her too so he wouldn’t kill her, but that doesn’t mean that the Beast would not try to force her into having sex, which he did, or that he wouldn’t get mad at her and hurt her. I feel as if she should have kept her distance, at least for awhile until she had found a way to heal him
The things that I really enjoyed throughout the book was the inner turmoil of Juliet, and the tough friendship of Lucy and Juliet. When Juliet fought to keep her father’s ideals out of her head even though some parts of her were interested in them, it showed great character growth. Even when Lucy and Juliet didn’t tell each other the whole truth, they grew together and kept each other going somewhat.
I am giving this book an over-the-top rating because I loved the stories premise, its characters, and it drew me in and would not let me go until I finished it completely.
Overall Rating: 6/5
