Let's talk about: The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

I was immediately intrigued when I heard about this book inspired by The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. It is a re-telling although it is not as much about Dr. Moreau as it is about his sixteen year old daughter Juliet Moreau. 

I was able to get it from the library and read it in only two days. 

That tells you that it was interesting and hard to put down. 

Juliet lives in London. She works in the university as a maid cleaning up the surgical/ med school areas. Her father, in the midst of being called a madman and dealing with scandal, left her and her mom behind and disappeared when she was young and she hasn't seen him since. Her mother died and she has had to take care of herself to keep off the streets. She learns that her father is still alive and travels to the island to find him. 

There is a love triangle in the book that felt very unnecessary until the very end. I liked one of the two boys most from the beginning and that never changed so I felt like her feelings for both boys were slightly out of place. It didn't feel as natural as some of them do. 

I really liked this book and was set to give it a four star review on Goodreads. And then it ended. 

I was completely unsatisfied with the ending. But I found out afterward that it is the first in a trilogy. 

If I had known that going in I would have felt a lot different about the ending... and yet I still think it could have been wrapped up nicely at the end with no further story. 

I will probably pick up the next two books soon, but I don't feel a rush to do it. 

I do recommend the book but go into it knowing that it is not perfect, there are a few parts that made me squirm (in relation to the experiments done on animals), there are some scenes that were a little scary, and the ending does not give you complete closure. Overall a good read though.