Review: The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

Title: The Madman's Daughter
Author:Megan ShepherdEdition: hardcoverSeries: The Madman's Daughter #1Released Date: January 19th, 2013Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Goodreads / Amazon In the darkest places, even love is deadly.
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.
Juliet has spent her last six years of her life wondering what happened to her father. With her mother's passing, and her father's disappearance, Juliet was forced to work as a maid and was on the verge of living on the street. When she finds her old childhood friend, Montgomery, who was her father's servant, she learns that her father is still alive and is researching on a far away island. Juliet forced Montgomery to take her with him to the island so she can be reunited with her father. What she doesn't know, is that the rumors about her father's grotesque experiments aren't rumors - they're fact.

I had never heard of The Island of Dr. Moreau before this book, but I'm glad I still picked up this book. I was very intrigued by the blurb, regardless of the fact that I had no background on the matter. 

Juliet's character was strong and passionate, and no matter how much she tried to say she wasn't a lady, she still held some lady-like qualities. Regardless, she wasn't afraid to get down and dirty and run away from threatening creatures or go against her father's wishes. She was manipulative at times, but only to get necessary information and learn more about what was occurring on the island. I respected Juliet, and she was a wonderful character in my eyes. The way she saw things, used her intelligence to get information, and conducted conversations with other characters made for an interesting novel. 

As for her father, Dr. Moreau, I really enjoyed reading about his character. The way he believed what he was doing was write, was so strong and apparent through the novel. He was a villain  but at the same time he seemed human. I found him crazy at times, but towards the end he seemed like he was trying to change in some aspects. There came times in the novel where I felt sorry for her father. He had given up his life and family for something he felt so passionately about. The way that Juliet felt towards her dad was all over the place. Sometimes she trusted him, sometimes she didn't. Sometimes she hated her dad, sometimes she didn't. Usually that would piss me off, but when it's in this case, it's understandable. Her father was technically the God of the island. He made everyone on the island and dictated what happened. If she wanted to survive, she had to trust her dad in some instances. In other cases if she wanted to survive, she would have to go against everything her dad told her. 

Montgomery played a big role in this too, as he was the assistant to Dr. Moreau. When Dr. Moreau still lived with Juliet, Montgomery was simply their servant. When her father disappeared, Montgomery went with, growing up to be his servant. Immediately, Juliet felt some attracting to Montgomery. I wouldn't classify it under insta-love, because it wasn't. Juliet always said she idolized and crushed on Montgomery when they were children, so it would be understandable to crush on him when they were both teenagers and she hasn't seen him in a while. I liked how their relationship grew sporadically throughout the book, instead of just having a linear effect, or exploding at one point. There would be moments where they would both feel something, and days would go by and they could still act like they weren't falling for each other.
Then there was Edward. He was always the odd card, and in the end he does prove out to be pretty unusual. Regardless, Edward was an interesting character to learn about. When he first showed up, I didn't know what to think of him. He ended up growing on me and I felt bad for him quite often. Especially how Juliet kept pulling away from him and then would draw him back in.
The one thing that kept me wrapped up in this book was not the romance, or the family issues. It was the creepiness that followed the creatures that were created, and the many twists and turns that were a result of these unpredictable creatures. The novel was simply chilling at some times, and I'm glad I read it in the day time, because if I read it before bed I would be imagining these deformed creatures and the crazy madman threatening to do a vivisection on me. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't afraid of these characters all the time though. They had redeeming qualities, and I actually started to enjoy reading about them. I even started to tear up in the end a little bit after what happened. I really enjoyed Alice, Ajax, Balthazar, and the other creatures in this novel!
I really loved reading this novel, and despite it's 420 pages, I wish there was more and more for me to keep reading. The ending will leave you wondering what is going to happen to Juliet and Montgomery. Honestly, there's so much potential for this next book that I can't wait to see what happens!