Review : Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : Her Dark Curiosity (The Madman's Daughter #2)
Author : Megan Shepherd
Publication Date : January 28th 2014
Publisher : Balzer + Bray
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble

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.

Personal Thoughts

Last year, I absolutely loved The Madman's Daughter. It was dark, atmospheric and suspenseful. It also ended in a brutal cliffhanger that had me raging and at the same time dying to read this second book. I had high hopes going into Her Dark Curiosity, but it ended up being so disappointing and I felt like it suffered from second book syndrome.

Juliet was someone I admired in the first book, but in Her Dark Curiosity she plain out annoyed me with her poor decision making skills. It was frustrating seeing her fluctuate between Edward and Montgomery. To be honest, it's not her fault. It's entirely the fault of the stupid love triangle. Juliet did things in this book that had me raging. At one point, despite being completely unsure of herself, she gives up her virginity to Edward right after he kills someone and is still drenched in blood. When she wakes up, she pushes him away and acts like a heartless bitch and tells him, she regrets everything and that she still has feelings for Montgomery. The next night, she meets Montgomery and begins making out with him and realizes that she still has feelings for him. Soon after, Montgomery proposes to her and he misunderstands her answer for a yes and doesn't bother correcting him. Her actions made me furious and I wished she wouldn't keep thinking about the two love interests so often.

Juliet's character left a bad taste in my mouth, which made it hard to enjoy the book in it's entirety. In the beginning, it felt like the romance and the love triangle suffocated the story line, but things did start to get better towards the end. Because this one had a different setting than in the first book, I also felt like the world-building wasn't as fascinating as it was the first time. Her Dark Curiosity lacked that intense and atmospheric nature that The Madman's Daughter. I was also quite disappointed with one of the twists being entirely too predictable. Regardless of all the issues that I've mentioned, I'm convinced that Megan Shepherd is a talented author because I did enjoy parts of the book. My only wish was that she didn't focus so much attention on typical YA tropes. She has the possibility of being one amazing author.

For the reasons mentioned above, I felt like Her Dark Curiosity paled  in comparison to The Madman's Daughter. I'm still going to read the final installment because this did end on a fairly positive note.


Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 1/5
Writing : 3/5

**Overall Rating : 2.5/5**


Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper Teen for the e-ARC of Her Dark Curiosity.

 

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