📕 Title: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
✏️ Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
📖 Genre: Historical Science Fiction
⭐ Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

BOOK BLURB

Moreno-Garcia reimagines H.G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau in nineteenth-century Mexico, blending history and soft science fiction into a captivating drama.

MY REVIEW

There is a strong sense of place, vividly depicting the remote estate tucked away in the Yucatán Península. The novel tackles colonialism and exploitation, weaving the hybrids’ plight into the Caste War of Yucatán.

Told through the eyes of both the young and naive Carlota Moreau and the alcoholic overseer Montgomery Laughton, I enjoyed the contrast of their perspectives. However, this narrative structure is repetitive at times, showing the same events from both Carlota’s and Laughton’s point of view. This further slowed down a story that is already leisurely paced.

This is soft science fiction, focusing more on societal and political themes, so don’t expect detailed technical explanations of how the hybrids were brought to life. The direction of the novel feels obvious from the beginning, but recognizing this didn’t lessen the impact of the revelation.

Overall, this story wasn’t as enthralling as Mexican Gothic but it was still interesting and impactful.