enne📚 reviewed The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Daughter of Doctor Moreau
3 stars
This book is self-described as a "dreamy reimagining" of the Island of Doctor Moreau. Rather than on a remote island, it's set in the remote Yucatan during the Caste War, and follows the perspectives of the titular daughter and a new alcoholic majordomo to the estate.
I have seen others describe this as a gothic novel, but some elements work against that framing for me. There is not a lot of ongoing mystery nor tension to the book. There is a reveal of some secrets, but I felt like the most major of these was not a surprise to the reader (or at least this reader) and so lost a lot of its bite. There are some bits of patriarchal tension and marriage pressure, but largely Carlota defends her father and wants to get married; rather than feeling trapped in her estate, she would prefer to stay there and doesn't …
This book is self-described as a "dreamy reimagining" of the Island of Doctor Moreau. Rather than on a remote island, it's set in the remote Yucatan during the Caste War, and follows the perspectives of the titular daughter and a new alcoholic majordomo to the estate.
I have seen others describe this as a gothic novel, but some elements work against that framing for me. There is not a lot of ongoing mystery nor tension to the book. There is a reveal of some secrets, but I felt like the most major of these was not a surprise to the reader (or at least this reader) and so lost a lot of its bite. There are some bits of patriarchal tension and marriage pressure, but largely Carlota defends her father and wants to get married; rather than feeling trapped in her estate, she would prefer to stay there and doesn't want to leave. Most of the tension in the book felt like economic tension: Montgomery's own debts, the pressure from the Lizaldes on the estate itself, and the larger economic tension in the region of needing workers for the fields and enslaving them with debt.
The reinterpretation of this story into the history of the Yucatan is probably the strongest part of the book for me. It's something I was not familiar with, so was interested in learning more about it. This framing creates backstory for why anybody would fund Dr. Moreau. It also creates colonialist parallels between how characters treat and view both the hybrids and the Mayans, especially in Dr. Moreau's own relationship to the hybrids themselves.
I always do like a reimagining of stories, but it wasn't enough to make the rest of the story compelling enough for me. I quite enjoyed Mexican Gothic, but I also felt like it was a much stronger novel than this one, especially in terms of tension, mystery, and reveal. If I had to recommend one Silvia Moreno-Garcia novel, it would be that one.
