Review Detail

This is a sequel to The Madman’s Daughter and picks up soon after the first one left off. It’s been a couple of months since Juliet’s return from the island and she’s trying to settle into her old life back in London. When people from her past start turning up dead with vicious claw marks slashes through them, Juliet fears it’s one of her father’s creations that has escaped from the island. She’s determined to find it before the police to keep her father’s experiments out of the hands of people who just might try to re-create them.

I am a huge fan of re-tellings and I especially love when there’s a dark twist to them. This one, a re-telling of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, was really hard to put down. I really liked the first book and the dark plot started there was present in the sequel as well. The writing was just as addicting in the first book and the pacing made it really hard to put down even when you know you have to work early in the morning.

Juliet was my favorite part of the first book but here, there’s a whole new cast of supporting characters who were all interesting in their own rights. I particularly liked Lucy, Juliet’s best friend, and their friendship. It could have easily turned into a girl-hate-girl-over-boy trope but instead we got this amazing female friendship that, while they did discuss boys, wasn’t built around boys. The professor who took Juliet in and his daughter Elizabeth were also great. I loved getting to learn details of Juliet’s parents through them, especially Juliet’s mother.

Juliet still was one of the best parts of the sequel. She’s this smart girl interested in science and medicine in a time when girls aren’t allowed to do much. She struggles with what her father did and what happened on the island; it doesn’t just disappear from her mind now that she’s back in London. Because of her fears and insecurities about being like her father, she makes some horrible decisions. She’s human, she’s flawed, she’s prone to bad decisions and mistakes. It’s great.

There is a love triangle that had been slightly present in the first book that gets more focus in this one. This is a triangle that makes sense to me. Juliet is torn between the boy from her childhood that she’s always liked and the boy who understands her in ways no one else can. Right now, letting go of either would be like letting go of a part of her and she’s not ready for that.

I was able to figure out a lot of the twists that came in the book. There was never really a jaw-dropping ‘did that really just happen?’ moment because of that. Even with that though, I did enjoy this one just a little more than the first. The ending has me really excited for the last book, especially if it’s the re-telling I think it might be. And with the cover art for the first two being so gorgeous, I really can’t wait for the reveal for the third one.