"Genius or madness-- it all depends on who's telling the story."
The Madman's Daughter was one of the most promising books of 2013, but it ultimately let me down. I hoped that Her Dark Curiosity would raise the bar and that it would be a vast improvement over it's predecessor. Much to my disappointment, Her Dark Curiosity takes almost everything I loved about The Madman's Daughter and sacrifices these elements for an extremely ridiculous and unnecessary love triangle. This is not a retelling of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by any stretch of the imagination, it's merely an illogical romance that left me rolling my eyes.
Her Dark Curiosity is riddled with plot holes, there's so much left unanswered and Shepherd doesn't even attempt to answer any of my questions. How did both Edward and Montgomery end up in London? Juliet never gives a thought to the fact that both guys are supposed to be trapped on the island and have miraculously returned. What a coincidence! There are too many moments where things just magically seem to fall into order easily. Not to mention, the fact that there are blatant errors in terms of the biology that Shepherd is referencing in this book, the science in Her Dark Curiosity is faulty and illogical at best.
The plot in Her Dark Curiosity is majorly lacking and the romance is the only force that truly keeps the plot from reaching a stalemate. There is way too much emphasis on the romance and Shepherd unsuccessfully uses the romance to forward the plot. I don't care for Edward or Montgomery at all, I truly don't see anything appealing about either romantic interest. Both guys are extremely untrustworthy, duplicitous, and lack moral decency; both guys seem to act like they can control Juliet at times and this really bothered me. Juliet kept on striving to create this facade where she was this strong-willed, powerful woman and yet, she let Montgomery and Edward push her around like a rag doll. Usually, I favor at least one character in a book's love triangle, but I couldn't care less about the romantic ventures of the trio in the slightest bit.
Megan Shepherd is extremely adept at creating a creepy, gothic atmosphere and compelling readers to continue reading about Juliet. Even though I wasn't interested in the plot of this book, I kept reading just for Shepherd's vivid, spooky imagery. Her Dark Curiosity really needed a big dose of creepy, macabre elements; I truly missed the peculiarities of Moreau's island and I yearned to read something that was idiosyncratic. Megan Shepherd is so talented at writing horror, both subtle and blatant, in the Madman's Daughter series and I really wish there was more of an emphasis on madness and other quirks of Juliet.
The last portion of the book is the most exciting part of the entire novel, but it is still rather dull. I really was curious to see what classic Shepherd would be retelling in book, but truthfully, it's so obvious what novel Shepherd was going to tackle from the get-go. I didn't see the conclusion coming at all, but then again, I was so disinterested in Her Dark Curiosity that it didn't leave an impression on me. I'm so over this series at this point and I can't really glean any excitement for book #3, but I have a feeling my dark curiosity will get the best of me and I will end up reading it.
Her Dark Curiosity is one of the most disappointing sequels I've read to date and it failed to deliver. I really wish The Madman's Daughter had been a stand-alone because as a series, it is extremely ineffective and frivolous. I could care less about the wretched love triangle and I'll be reading the 3rd novel just to see how this series ends. I have really high hopes for Shepherd's upcoming series, The Cage and I really hope that I enjoy more than Her Dark Curiosity.
Yikes.
ReplyDeleteI still haven't read The Mad Man's Daughter, but all the negative reviews for Her Dark Curiosity are honestly making me reconsider even picking up the first one :(