The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd
Series: The Madman's Daughter #1
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: January 29th 2013
Source: Bought

In the darkest places, even love is deadly. Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.

Ever since I heard about this book waaaay back at the end of 2012, I knew that I wanted to read it. It's just taken me a lot longer than I'd planned to get around to it. The Madman's Daughter was a book that I was really looking forward to. It sounded like it was going to be such a creepy read, and it definitely was!

I knew that this book was based on The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells but I've never read it. In all honesty, I'd never heard of it until I noticed that this book was based on it. So I never really had any idea what was going to happen before I started reading this book which actually wasn't a bad thing because I did end up really enjoying it (and now I want to read The Island of Dr. Moreau).

Megan Shepherd's writing style is fantastic. It was engaging, fast-paced, creepy and kept me hooked the whole way through the book. I'd heard that this book was slightly scary, but I never found anything scary about it. It was insanely creepy sometimes though and I was left with shivers and chills quite a few times, but there weren't any scary parts. 

I did really like Juliet's character, even if I did think she was slightly naive sometimes. The incident at the start of the book when Juliet is trapped in the college just showed me how strong of a character Juliet was. She really isn't afraid to go to whatever lengths she must to protect herself and I liked that about her. She's also a pretty feisty and determined character. When Montgomery tells her she can't come with him, Juliet puts up a fight until he eventually has to give into her. But, when Juliet arrived on the island and she noticed something strange about the inhabitants, she bought her fathers story about them being born that way when it was so unbelievable clear that he was a deranged psycho who created them. Like, really obvious. But other than that little bit of naivety, I did really like Juliet's character.

I also really liked Montgomery. As soon as he showed up I was just so glad that Juliet had someone from her past to connect with. She's been by herself for so long that I just loved that he'd came back into her life. Montgomery definitely had feelings for Juliet, but all of his feelings were put aside so that he could to Juliet's fathers bidding. He was basically like a puppet for most of the book. But Montgomery had a soft and caring side that came out when he was around Juliet. He could be really sweet and I was kind of rooting for him and Juliet.

And then we have Edward Prince. What can I say about Edward? Well, as soon as he was spotted floating in a boat and brought aboard the ship, I was extremely curious about him. As soon as Edward woke up, he set his sights on Juliet and he basically just fell in love with her. I wasn't a major fan of Edward/Juliet, but I did like Edward's character. He was mysterious, intriguing and he was a really nice guy. 

There was nothing about this story that I didn't enjoyed. I enjoyed Juliet's time in London; Seeing her re-connect with her father after a very long time and seeing her start to uncover the truth about her father. Reading about Juliet uncovering the truth was definitely my favourite part. Her father believed that what he was doing was right and Juliet never realised how far his obsession went. Her father was keeping a lot of secrets from her and Juliet was determined to find out what they were. 

The twist at the end was such a fantastic and shocking twist! I never in a million years would have predicted that would happen because it was just so unexpected! It led to a big showdown at the end and Juliet trying to escape from the island. I will say that the ending left me slightly heartbroken because I had this perfect ending planned out (so did Juliet), and it was just crushed. So I am pretty excited to see where Her Dark Curiosity is going to pick up and find out what's going to happen in that one!

Overall, The Madman's Daughter was a fantastic and creepy read. It was fast paced, engaging and full of secrets and twist that keep you reading. It's definitely one I'd recommend.