Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

37 reviews

fairytalefootnotes's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

3.0

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Writing: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Characters: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️
Tropes: Mad Scientist, Genetic Modification
3rd Act Breakup?: Yes

The Praise: The side characters really stood out to me in this one. The hybrids really clawed their way into my heart.

The Critique: I felt kind of misled by the potential romance that was set up between Carlota and Montgomery
and how it never came to fruition.

Final Thoughts: Overall the book just felt kind of…fine. I didn’t have any strong feelings either way.

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inirac's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Really enjoyed this. I'm glad it made an effort to ground the original story in the history of the area and gave agency to characters that I had been curious about.

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lady_valhella's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75


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lynxpardinus's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious

4.25


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meat_muffin's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.75

Wow, not gonna lie, this book was PAINFULLY slow and boring. Sure, the prose was pretty, but nothing??? happened??? for the first HALF of the book! I was just waiting for plot! Overrated, not gonna lie

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vixenreader's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.75

Half of the book is more about atmosphere than plot. Be patient, because you will get a thrilling climax once you get over the hump and see how the author subverts Wells’ sci-fi classic in the best possible way. 

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bessadams's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5


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trips's review

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 Sadly another deeply fine book that I read this year.

What could have a been an interesting retelling of HG Wells Classic that explored interesting power dynamics, to me was a very slow experience that wasn't by any means a bad time, but it also wasn't a very good time either. I appreciated the sci-fi story with the historical Mexican background, in fact that is my favorite aspect of this entire book.
What I didn't like is that Carlota and Montgomery get fleshed out in boring internal monologues that are too lengthy and do nothing for the overall story. Sadly this book could've been a novella and would've had the same impact I think...
But it wasn't BAD by any means, the author is clearly a talented writer. There just wasn't really a ton of tension until the last 25% of the book and by that point I was just...very bored. Sadly disappointing. 

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moreau's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

SPOILERS FOR THIS BOOK AND THE ORIGINAL DR MOREAU AHEAD
I think this book was ruined for me because I'm too big a fan of the original book, I honestly think it's a safe bet to say I'm the biggest Island of Dr Moreau fan alive today. On it's own, this book is really good but I can't help being annoyed by the fact it's different to how I interpreted Wells's novel. First of all, why is Montgomery straight? Even Moreau being married at one point changes his character a lot but I can live with that, Montgomery seems so queercoded to me that it felt weird hearing him crush on Carlota and talk about Fanny. I also don't get his last name being Laughton? Charles Laughton plays Moreau in the 1932 film, so I assume it's in homage to that, and Montgomery's actor did have an atrocious name (Hohl) but Val Kilmer also played him and Kilmer is a cool ass name, I think I've always just imagined Montgomery's name to be.. Montgomery Montgomery. I really liked Montgomery and Moreau's characters in this, they're reminiscent of the original characters while having their own depths and charms. I also really loved the Mexican cultural aspect of this book, I found it very interesting and added to the story. I wonder if Carlota's name is a reference to Lota, the panther woman in the 1932 film, if so that's really cool. I found this book severely lacking in the actual hybrid aspect, the hybrids aren't as animalistic as I think they should be. There's no M'Ling too, he's my favourite hybrid. But yeah, the hybrids just felt like more people. They don't have their finger classing, they don't have the law, the House of Pain does appear but not very much.. it just felt so lacking. How do the hybrids act so civilized when they don't even have The Law? You could get rid of every aspect of this book relating it to Dr Moreau and it wouldn't be that different. I did like Carlota becoming most beastly as the book goes on, I'm a sucker for female rage portrayed by being a cat girl. This just felt more like Cat People than Dr Moreau honestly, if it'd focused more on the sci-fi and horror aspect I'd have been more into it. I also hope Eduardo isn't supposed to be Edward because Eduardo sucks. Also also Moreau dying at the end threw me off, I think it's really interesting in the original book how long it goes on after him and Montgomery die, you get to see Edward and the beast people deal with it and it's rather deep. But yeah, if you aren't as autistic about Moreau as me this is good.

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morag's review

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dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75


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