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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
tense
I first read this in high school as part of an omnibus of H.G. Wells' stories that my mother had gifted to me. It became one of my favorites, and Wells remained a writer whose work I read and reread.
Ok, let's get this out of the way first. Yes, there are some extremely problematic bits that feel exceptionally racist to a modern reader. I won't shout 'Product of its time!' at you about it, the words on the page do matter and it will likely impact your reading experience. That being said, the object of horror is to make you uncomfortable and in this the whole novel succeeds spectacularly.
I almost bailed at 'The Cries of the Puma.' I'm an animal lover and the way such horrible abuse and torture was depicted made me physically sick to my stomach. I pushed through because, again, the aim of horror is to horrify and truly it does that with flying colors.
The novel was written at a time when animal experimentation and vivisection was a hot button issue, and the novel shows the unflinching reality of the horrible pain and degradation such practices truly inflict on living creatures all for the amusements and satisfaction of mankind. The pointlessness of the cruel experimentation is an important factor in this story. Dr. Moreau isn't making terrible but necessary sacrifices in order to advance medical research and cure cancer, all he wants is to make some abominations just to see if he can.
Do the themes hold up? Absolutely. I mean, how many living, breathing, suffering creatures spent their whole lives caged and in torment to bring that newest glittery eyeshadow to the market? But hey, this eyeshadow is 10% more water resistant. Totally worth it, right?
I almost bailed at 'The Cries of the Puma.' I'm an animal lover and the way such horrible abuse and torture was depicted made me physically sick to my stomach. I pushed through because, again, the aim of horror is to horrify and truly it does that with flying colors.
The novel was written at a time when animal experimentation and vivisection was a hot button issue, and the novel shows the unflinching reality of the horrible pain and degradation such practices truly inflict on living creatures all for the amusements and satisfaction of mankind. The pointlessness of the cruel experimentation is an important factor in this story. Dr. Moreau isn't making terrible but necessary sacrifices in order to advance medical research and cure cancer, all he wants is to make some abominations just to see if he can.
Do the themes hold up? Absolutely. I mean, how many living, breathing, suffering creatures spent their whole lives caged and in torment to bring that newest glittery eyeshadow to the market? But hey, this eyeshadow is 10% more water resistant. Totally worth it, right?
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Didn't expect to love this as much as I did. The two Wells' I've read before (TTM and WotW) I loved, but I read them when I was at university and very easily impressed. I was curious whether I'd still enjoy Wells and anticipated finding him drier than I hoped, but he did not disappoint! This is my favourite so far. The prose is alive and his descriptions are wonderful and enthralling, the narrative is energetic, and the meditations on science, humanity, and inhumanity are endlessly fascinating to me. The influence of racist pseudoscience is an uncomfortable and unfortunately inseparable part of the fabric of the time, however.
It was fun to listen to a classic horror novel that I haven't been spoiled for through modern media. I think the pacing is a bit strange, but overall the story was fun and spooky.
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
As soon as I finished the first chapter of the book, I knew that It would be one that I could not put down. This was one of the best Science fiction books I've read in a very long time, and it being a classic, am surprised that I hadn't read it until now. I found this book by chance; it was being thrown out and discarded in my local library. I picked it up years ago, and only now gave it a read. And wow, was it a creepy spine tingling tale. Everything was described (especially the Beast men) in such detail that I had no choice but to cringe at the image that my mind would create. It was truly haunting, and couldn't imagine how terrifying the situation would have been in real life. Come to think of it, this whole book is not entirely out of the realm of possibility, and this fact is what made it all the scarier. On more than once occasion, Wells would invite you to imagine such scenario as the one Edward was presently experiencing, and boy did that make my skin crawl. This was a fantastic classic, and would highly suggest to anyone who is interested in science fiction.