The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Review

Published: July 19, 2022

Publisher: Del Rey

Series: N/A

Genre: Fantasy, Historical

Pages: 320 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 3.5/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a dreamy reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Mexico.

Carlota Moreau: a young woman, growing up in a distant and luxuriant estate, safe from the conflict and strife of the Yucatán peninsula. The only daughter of either a genius, or a madman.

Montgomery Laughton: a melancholic overseer with a tragic past and a propensity for alcohol. An outcast who assists Dr. Moreau with his scientific experiments, which are financed by the Lizaldes, owners of magnificent haciendas and plentiful coffers.

The hybrids: the fruits of the Doctor’s labor, destined to blindly obey their creator and remain in the shadows. A motley group of part human, part animal monstrosities.

All of them living in a perfectly balanced and static world, which is jolted by the abrupt arrival of Eduardo Lizalde, the charming and careless son of Doctor Moreau’s patron, who will unwittingly begin a dangerous chain reaction.

For Moreau keeps secrets, Carlota has questions, and in the sweltering heat of the jungle, passions may ignite.

THE DAUGHTER OF DOCTOR MOREAU is both a dazzling historical novel and a daring science fiction journey. 

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Seems like July is the month for historical fantasy books. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is based (as one might guess) on the H.G. Wells novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau, which I have never read so as one does, I looked up a summary on Wikipedia. There are definite parallels between the two stories, both of which focus on Doctor Moreau’s experimentation on human-animal hybrids though the end goals are somewhat different. 

As the title of the book states, this tale largely centers around Carlota Moreau, daughter of the infamous doctor. She has been raised on a remote hacienda in Yaxaktun (Yucatan) Mexico, which itself is nearly an island during this time period due to its remote nature and the difficulty of sending and receiving communications. This makes it the perfect location for Moreau’s experiments, where he strives to hybridize animals and humans to make the perfect worker for Moreau’s sponsor, Hernando Lizalde. 

Carlota has been raised alongside the hybrids, particularly Lupe and Cachito who are of an age with Carlota and were raised alongside one another. Moreau himself is a strict man who styles himself as a god-like figure to the hybrids during their church services and beats them when they aren’t obedient. Then there’s Montgomery, the hacienda overseer who treats the hybrids as friends. He’s a man running from a terrible past and drowning his memories in drink. Carlota is a docile, naïve girl for much of the book but as the story progresses you can see her awakening to the cruel realities of humanity and taking her life into her own hands as best she can. 

The character growth, particularly Carlota’s, is great. Yes, she stands out the most because she’s one of the main point of view characters, but what she goes through and becomes is impressive.  Montgomery’s is alright – he becomes somewhat less of a morose drunk later in the book and despite his many flaws he’s actually a decent fellow. I liked the setting and time period, as this isn’t something I see in too many fantasy (or fantasy adjacent books) but I long to see more of it! The author has a fantastic blurb at the end of the book about how she came to choose this particular time period and setting which was pretty cool.

Overall, this was a solid read, but once again not a favorite. I honestly never really LOVE historical fantasy/fiction even though I really want to, but the premises are always so interesting I can’t help but to request them!