The following post includes affiliate links. More details here.  As you’re doing your Amazon shopping, we’d be ever so grateful if you’d use our affiliate link to do so as it helps pay the bills around here!

As we’re going into Thanksgiving week mode here at Heart.Wants.Books. We’re doing what our favorite Professional-Permission-Giver Kendra Adachi says over at The Lazy Genius Collective in the Lazy Genius Principle #12: Schedule Rest. And what better way to schedule rest during the Thanksgiving holiday week than by planning to curl up with Veronica and Stoker on their next mystery adventure, A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn! Then plan to join us on Friday, December 9, at 7:30 PM CST for our raucous discussion by registering here!

Back in December 2020 Heart.Wants.Books. Reviewed Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It was on both of our top five books of 2020 list. In May of 2021, we reviewed her backlist title Gods of Jade and Shadow  for Mythology in May which became one of my top four fiction favorites for last year. WITH ALL OF THIS BEING SAID, it should come as no surprise that The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is a STRONG contender for the Best Of in 2022! Moreno-Garcia, at least according to her awards-heavy website biography, still lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her next novel, Silver Nitrate, is slated to be released in July 2023. Go ahead and put this novel of horror films, mystery, and magic on your TBR. We’re sure to read along with you.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is 342 pages of delicious prose, the retelling of the 1896 H.G. Wells science fiction novel The Island of Doctor Moreau, set in the Yucatan wilderness in the year 1877. Wells’ tale is the story of a shipwrecked man left on the island of a mad scientist who creates human-animal hybrid creatures by using vivisection. Moreno-Garcia also uses philosophical and religious themes including pain and cruelty, moral responsibility, human identity, and human’s interference with nature. I particularly loved her subtle digs at the patriarchy by focusing on man’s desire for god-hood and man’s superiority over women and animals. She also brings in 1870’s Mexican politics and social themes with the native Mayan revolts. The entire impetus of Dr. Moreau’s experiments was to create a workforce that would be both capable and docile for farms and factories without being required to pay a wage. (Hmm, where have we heard of that concept before? The patriarchy is gross.) All of these heavy themes are so well woven into the story of Dr. Moreau’s daughter Carlota and small hacienda in the vivid, overgrown jungle. I thought about how on one of the cruises Adam and I took we could have swum in a cenote, just like Carlota and her staunch protector Montgomery Laughton, but didn’t. The view from the top was spectacular and so is my regret.

Even though I don’t see myself re-reading this July 2022 release, I’m hesitant to give less than a 5 star review to The Daughter of Doctor Moreau for all the reasons I stated above. This season pass author is here to stay on my TBR list, because anything new will be recommended to the library immediately. I have several backlist titles to get through, but I don’t think I’ll re-read any of her titles in the near future. It’s hard to give five stars to a title I won’t re-read, but I know that I’ll read and recommend anything else she writes. The STRUGGLE. IS. REAL. So, we’ll say 4.5 and rounded up to 5.

What retelling of a classic novel has given you pause for thought about historical AND current issues?

~Ashley

What’s more comfortable to read than a season pass author?!  I don’t even know.  Shocking no one, I have a few titles by Silvia Moreno Garcia on my holds list, and as Ashley mentioned, so far, they’re all at least contenders for favorites of the year, and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is no different.  

When The Daughter of Doctor Moreau opens, Dr. Moreau needs a new mayordomo and his patron brings Montgomery into the mix.  He and Carlota narrate the book, and I adored reading from both perspectives.  Carlota is young, trusting, and her piece is very much a coming of age story as she learns some hard truths about the world in which she lives.  Montgomery has lived a bit of life, made some bad choices, and is wiser, and jaded, as a result, so he’s just trying to work and pay off his debts.  The back and forth of these two perspectives and how Moreno Garcia writes them both is simply gorgeous.  I haven’t been to a cenote, but thanks to her picturesque descriptions, I have a very clear image in my head.  And then there’s the story, which is phenomenal!  The first part is a quiet domestic scene to build the world, and then we are off with all the ills that plague the world of Dr. Moreau, both in his home and in the world.  I don’t want to say more, but how the plot unfolds might be my favorite part!

Like Ashley, I’m giving The Daughter of Doctor Moreau 4.5 stars, because a 5 star read needs to be reread, in my opinion, and that is the only thing holding me back.  That said, I do think a reread would be a very fun hang to see all those Easter eggs in perfect clarity.  I’m VERY excited for Moreno Garcia’s next title, and delighted we still have more of her backlist to read.

Who is a season pass author for you, and what would you recommend we consider reading and reviewing from them?

~Nikki

PLEASE SUPPORT US WHEN YOU SHOP BY FIRST CLICKING ON THE IMAGES BELOW: