The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
On sale
19th July 2022
Price: £9.99
From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a dreamy reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Mexico.
‘The deeply atmospheric novel blends horror, science fiction, and historical events’ Time, 100 ‘Must Read Books of 2022’
Carlota Moreau: growing up in a distant and luxuriant estate, safe from the conflict and strife of the Yucatan peninsula, she is the only daughter of an eccentric, and dangerous, genius. His experiments, a motley group of hybrid monstrosities, are blindly loyal to their creator.
Into Carlota’s strange but perfectly balanced world comes Eduardo Lizalde, the charming, careless son of Doctor Moreau’s patrons. In the sweltering heat of the jungle, amidst her father’s secrets and her own awakening feelings, Carlota will begin asking questions that could ignite a conflagration.
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‘Genius . . . combine[s] contemporary political awareness with the appeal of a creepy gothic romance‘ – Guardian
‘An evocative slow-burn SF drama about colonialism, heredity and scientific hubris, couched in lush prose‘ – Financial Times
‘The imagination of Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a thing of wonder, restless and romantic, fearless in the face of genre, embracing the polarities of storytelling‘ – New York Times
‘Paints a vivid picture that is as alluring as it is unsettling, filled with action, romance, and monsters‘ Booklist
‘The deeply atmospheric novel blends horror, science fiction, and historical events’ Time, 100 ‘Must Read Books of 2022’
Carlota Moreau: growing up in a distant and luxuriant estate, safe from the conflict and strife of the Yucatan peninsula, she is the only daughter of an eccentric, and dangerous, genius. His experiments, a motley group of hybrid monstrosities, are blindly loyal to their creator.
Into Carlota’s strange but perfectly balanced world comes Eduardo Lizalde, the charming, careless son of Doctor Moreau’s patrons. In the sweltering heat of the jungle, amidst her father’s secrets and her own awakening feelings, Carlota will begin asking questions that could ignite a conflagration.
______________________
‘Genius . . . combine[s] contemporary political awareness with the appeal of a creepy gothic romance‘ – Guardian
‘An evocative slow-burn SF drama about colonialism, heredity and scientific hubris, couched in lush prose‘ – Financial Times
‘The imagination of Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a thing of wonder, restless and romantic, fearless in the face of genre, embracing the polarities of storytelling‘ – New York Times
‘Paints a vivid picture that is as alluring as it is unsettling, filled with action, romance, and monsters‘ Booklist
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Reviews
Moreno-Garcia is a magician able to switch genres with ease
Cements Silvia Moreno-Garcia's incredible versatility as an amazing writer who moves between genres effortlessly
A chameleon writer with incredible writing skills
Silvia Moreno-Garcia's writing is unforgettable
A genre-jumping wizard, one of the most exciting and necessary authors writing today
With intelligence, energy, and unexpected tenderness, Silvia Moreno-Garcia takes on Wells' classic tale of scientific hubris. Carlota, the mad Doctor Moreau's only child, is a creation more original than anything her father's cruel experiments could ever conjure. At once playful and deadly serious, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is an irresistible and thoroughly satisfying novel
The brilliant and unstoppable Silvia Moreno-Garcia continues to weave her magic in The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, a smart, sinister fable about social inequality and exploitation, isolation and abuse of power. In her usual fashion, Moreno-Garcia has given us an extraordinary heroine to root for in Carlota, a young woman who can't know until she's tested how much power is hers to claim. Both lacerating and deeply empathetic, this story satisfies the reader on every page
Silvia Moreno-Garcia goes from strength to strength. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is my favourite of her novels so far - a gothic tour-de-force with characters who will keep you glued to the page, and a series of satisfying, surprising riffs on Wells' original story
Lush, eerie, and compulsively readable. This story got under my skin and stayed there
Beautiful, feral, and as sharp as a jaguar's claws . . . I felt the anger and hope in this story down to my very bones. Truly, Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a virtuoso of the anti-imperialist gothic novel
If you love psychological horror and historical fiction, this is the book for you
She deftly combines fantasy, adventure, and even romance; the result is hard to classify but definitely a lot of fun. This isn't the first book to riff on H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), but it's definitely one of the better ones. A fun literary remix
Paints a vivid picture that is as alluring as it is unsettling, filled with action, romance, and monsters. However, it is Moreno-Garcia's ability to mesh the unease of the scientifically created beasts with the real-life terrors of a life on the margins and the horror of colonialism that elevates this story. Readers will fall into this tale immediately, enchanted
Moreno-Garcia's world-building chops are on display as she creates a distinct, vibrant backdrop to her audacious retelling. Fans of cerebral, atmospheric historical horror won't want to miss this
I was swept along from beginning to end, enchanted by this wonderful novel that breathes new life into a classic concept
The imagination of Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a thing of wonder, restless and romantic, fearless in the face of genre, embracing the polarities of storytelling - the sleek and the bizarre, wild passions and deep hatreds - with cool equanimity
If there are two things I love in this world, it's contemporary reimaginings of Victorian era horror and sci-fi, and joyful genre mashups in literature. Thank the Lord, then, for Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the author of the 1970s Mexico City noir Velvet Was the Night and the postcolonial gothic romance Mexican Gothic, who brings her chameleonic powers to bear on H. G. Wells's 1896 'exercise in youthful blasphemy'
Once again the author of Mexican Gothic demonstrates her genius for genre mashups, combining contemporary political awareness with the appeal of a creepy gothic romance
An evocative slow-burn SF drama about colonialism, heredity and scientific hubris, couched in lush prose
This is another excellent story by an author who is always worth reading and highly recommended
What Moreno-Garcia really does, though, is explore who the real monsters are in the world
A riff on H. G. Well's 1896 SF horror classic The Island of Doctor Moreau, given a feminist slant, but it is much more than that and is often unexpectedly beautiful
Atmospheric and evocative
Romance, intrigue and body horror swirl together fantastically . . . an eerie book, in which strange creatures lurk and simmering passions ignite
Hailed as one of the most anticipated books of 2022
Seamlessly blends a sense of the old with the new, creating a new story that respects Wells but will always be in Moreno-Garcia's distinct style and voice
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau sweeps along in the style of Isabel Allende's fantastical City of Beasts