Reviews

As a huge fan of character-driven stories, a lot of things about this really worked for me. Despite the story taking place around Doctor Moreau's experimental work, we follow the POV of his daughter and of his aide, focusing on their reactions and experiences as the ranch struggles for money, the projects fail, and their livelihood is threatened. Starting when Carlota is a young child, it's clear how much this insular household has affected her, and I enjoyed how the author portrayed her changing mindset from full indoctrination into an independent young woman. Switching to follow Montgomery, the rugged and jaded property aide, we see a totally different perspective characterized by hardship and mental struggle. With the setting as the backdrop, the author showed each person's motivation in a way that created sympathy for even the worst characters. Subtle clues told that things were not fully as they seemed, but the twist was not what I expected. As a relatable human story against a shocking setting, it kept my attention all the way through.

Unfortunately, the writing quality did take a dip near the end, with the falling action doing more telling than showing. Events were more distant or reflected upon instead of happening with the action making the triumphs and failures more stagnant than exciting. I also noticed one plot hole: one of the antagonists locks Carlota in a room with him, so nobody can come in and save her. Then, he escapes, and he locks her inside. In what universe is there a door that locks on both sides like that, unless I missed some critical detail that there had always been sliding locks in this very normal house? Regardless, that moment took me out of the action and was another way that the tone had shifted. It picked back up for the brief epilogue, but it was too late by then.

Content warnings for domestic violence, injury, racism, animal abuse, child & adult death, medicine & surgery, gaslighting, manipulation, emotional abuse, guns, murder, mental health, confinement, and alcoholism.

Used for 2023 r/Fantasy Bingo (title with a title, hard mode); also fits mundane jobs, mythical beasts (hard mode), coastal, horror (hard mode), POC author (hard mode), and myths/retellings (hard mode).

ozareh97's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

elliemmf's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

mair_mcc's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I loved the writing, and liked the relationship between Carlota and Montgomery

(and that it didn't end romantically between them). I wish we had dove more into the sci-fi horror of it all, that's what I was expecting and there was really only any "horror" in the final fight scenes. And I predicted that Carlota was a hybrid almost immediately, that was not a twist to me at all.

Enjoyed this for reading by the pool and will read more from this author!

kittynovaaaa's review against another edition

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4.0

4.0

miss moreno-garcia made me enjoy science fiction again, i haven’t liked it this much since the 6th grade

karenschiavelli's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

3.25

It was fine. The characters were creative and I enjoy her writing style, but the plot was slow and mostly predictable.

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