A review by brooke_review
The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke

4.0

First, let's just get it out there that this is a beautiful story. Naturally, it's not one you hear every day, if at all, but the idea behind it is touching and at the same time quite unsettling. Lines are being crossed here, which maybe should not be crossed - on the other hand, in a world where humans and A.I. live side-by-side, perhaps the topics discussed in this novel would not seem so renegade. Regardless of how you personally feel about the topics discussed in the novel, it is engaging and a page-turner. I liked the fact that the novel spanned a large portion of Cat's life, and did so fairly quickly - a new chapter may begin with a couple years having passed. It worked in this sense, as the focus of the book was Cat and Finn, not Cat's personal life, although snippets of her life were integral to the plot of the story. I liked that Cat was often unlikable and quite broken, whereas one couldn't help but love Finn. It showed how Cat often got in her own way when it came to relationships. What kept this book from being 5 stars is that it probably could have benefited from a touch more of dystopian elements. The Midwest is unlivable; there is something called the "Disasters;" they experience rather intense storms quite often; and then there is the A.I. element and the political attempt to rescue them - I would have liked to have seen more attention/explanation given to these.