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quadrille 's review for:
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Everywhere Montgomery had been he’d spied the same misery under a different guise. In England it was in the factories, in Latin America it was in the fields. There was always someone with a little more money, a little more power, and he owned you.
A retelling of The Island of Dr. Moreau, set in 1870s Mexico in the Yucatan peninsula, all hot sweltering jungle and overgrown greenery, with a backdrop of strict prim white European colonisers waging armed conflict against the local Mayan rebels. As you can tell by my quote above, it’s all very much about indenture and slavery and servitude, both with the hybrids built in Moreau’s lab and also with regular workers chained by their debts.
All of these chimeric pieces fit together surprisingly well, and there’s a lot of Moreno-Garcia’s earlier [b:Mexican Gothic|53152636|Mexican Gothic|Silvia Moreno-Garcia|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1607462569l/53152636._SY75_.jpg|73647361] here, with the rich sumptuous atmosphere and Gothic ambience, a sharp plucky young female protagonist, a complicated family, brooding men.
I love all the found family feelings, Carlota cobbling together the people she loves, learning to get out from under the thumb of her domineering father. Her surrogate sibling relationships with the hybrids. All the hybrids as a whole, and how lovely it is to have a story reframed and retold from their perspective rather than the monstrous scientist who made them.
I love Montgomery — probably my favourite character in the book, and one of our two POV characters — because man I just adore a depressed bereft alcoholic who’s also fiercely protective and kind despite his rough manners and appearance. I’m also a sucker for some complicated pining and yearning!!! And good god, this man is all aching yearning.
In the end, though: 3.5 stars, rounded down. The book is interesting and engaging, but ultimately missing something which I can’t really put my finger on. I think it’s because it didn’t strike me to the quick and didn’t hammer on my emotions: I came away having liked the read, it’s competently-written and enjoyable, but it’s not lasting. I think Mexican Gothic actually sits with me longer due to its more original setup.
Read as one of the Best Novel nominees for the 2023 Hugos.