It's interesting to see that so many people labelled this book as Horror on Goodreads. It is not. Silvia Moreno-Garcia writes a lot of different genres and she's really good at that.
THE DAUGHTER OF DOCTOR MOREAU is a retelling. I would class this as historical fiction or science fiction, because it takes place in the 1800s in Mexico and it reads like a Victorian novel but it contains scientific experiments.
I think many people are aware of Dr. Moreau's (fictional) work. H.G. WELLS is the one that invented him. He lives on an island far away from civilization and he does tests on animals and humans to see if he can combine animal DNA with humans to make them stronger.
In this retelling we follow Carlota, Moreau's daughter and Montgomery, a Englishman who joins the family as mayordomo. He's hunter and caretaker of the hybrids that Moreau has created. It's very character-driven. We follow the emotional state of these two main characters and through their eyes we find out how others feel about there lives in the estate.
Moreau is indebted to the Lizaldes who finance the estate they live on. One day, Lizalde's son and cousin come to visit their house and the son falls in love with Carlota. Things spiral from there.
The only thing I didn't enjoy were the fight scenes. It was easy to lose track of what was happening, but other than that the human (and hybrid) aspect was very well-fleshed out and I was rooting for the main protagonists throughout. I can really recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Victorian novels with a character driven story and a bit of suspense.
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