Wednesday, August 27, 2014

ARC Review: Her Dark Curiosity (The Madman's Daughter #2)

Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Title: Her Dark Curiosity (The Madman's Daughter #2)
Author: Megan Sheperd
Genre/s: Young Adult, Historical, Paranormal, Mystery, Thriller
Released Date: February 2, 2014
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Synopsis:

To defeat the darkness, she must first embrace it.

Months have passed since Juliet Moreau returned to civilization after escaping her father's island—and the secrets she left behind. Now, back in London once more, she is rebuilding the life she once knew and trying to forget Dr. Moreau’s horrific legacy—though someone, or something, hasn’t forgotten her.

As people close to Juliet fall victim one by one to a murderer who leaves a macabre calling card of three clawlike slashes, Juliet fears one of her father’s creations may have also escaped the island. She is determined to find the killer before Scotland Yard does, though it means awakening sides of herself she had thought long banished, and facing loves from her past she never expected to see again.

As Juliet strives to stop a killer while searching for a serum to cure her own worsening illness, she finds herself once more in the midst of a world of scandal and danger. Her heart torn in two, past bubbling to the surface, life threatened by an obsessive killer—Juliet will be lucky to escape alive.

With inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, this is a tantalizing mystery about the hidden natures of those we love and how far we’ll go to save them from themselves.

My Thoughts:

Six months after what happened in The Madman’s Daughter, Juliet is back in London staying with Prof. von Stein, her father’s colleague and current legal guardian, and slowly rebuilding her life. But it seems like the nightmare that happened in the island followed her because a serial killer is on the loose and all the victims’ laceration looked familiar to Juliet. She hoped to God she’s wrong because if her guess is right, that means Montgomery didn’t succeed, Edward survived and he will be looking for her.

I dislike this book so much, it’s not even funny. Juliet is becoming stupider and whinier every time I flip the pages. And even though, I’m super annoyed, I soldier on and finish it because I feel like punishing myself for requesting and believing that Juliet would learn her lesson after what happened in the island.

Anyway, I didn’t know that a fictional character can rub me the wrong way until I met her. I hate it whenever she makes an excuse to save Edward. She was like “please, don’t kill him. It was the monster inside him who’s a murderer, not him. Look, his hands don't have claws right now. He's not the killer.” 

She's delusional if she believes that there's still humanity left in him. For heaven's sake, the only thing human about Edward is his blood, everything else is animal parts arranged to make it look human. Saving that liters of human blood doesn't quantify to the amount of blood of all his murdered victims. 

I mean, what’s wrong with her. Did her father also remove her common sense when he experimented on her? And don’t even get me started with what happened to her and Edward. Let’s just say, it was the grossest thing I’ve ever read and leave it at that. 

Seriously, I don’t know what this book is trying to accomplish. I kept on pondering the story and trying to find a deeper meaning to it - a hidden message, a morale value or a redeeming quality, perhaps - but I just can’t find it. So overall, this is the kind of book I will never recommend. EVER!


My Rating 

*An ARC was given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. (Thanks, Harper Collins International!)
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