A review by bzliz
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss

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

2.25

The best I can say is that this sure is a book I listened to. It’s like Disney’s Descendants meets classic monster stories and also Sherlock Holmes is there. The lead character is Mary Jekyll. She ends up bringing together her maybe-half-sister Diana Hyde, a poisonous woman, a woman developed from a puma, a lady Frankenstein, her housekeeper and her former maid to form a club living together and investigating a secret society of men who do inhumane experiments on women. 

The characters all get lost because of the attempt to create an ensemble cast and none are interesting enough on their own to warrant undivided attention. There are several asides and interjections within the story from the characters themselves which was charming at first but it quickly became tedious. At least three were Diana asserting that the author can accurately capture her voice when she wants to. Even with this crew of women brought together, they still need Sherlock Holmes to help them investigate and lend them credibility because they are women living in a deeply misogynistic world. On top of that, the villains were so cartoonish that they helpfully spew exposition for the benefit of readers in a way that nobody has ever talked or ever will talk. 

I cannot subject myself to the next book no matter how much I need something to listen to while I clean my house. It’s 700 pages long and this entire book felt like a preamble to explain how these women met and I can’t bear to recount it all over again. 
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