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Book Review: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

cover art for The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno Garcia

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Del Rey, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593355336

Available:: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

Buy: Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com

 

 

This reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau takes place on the Yucután peninsula in 1871 against the backdrop of the Yucután Caste War. A hacendero, Joseph Lizdale, hires the adventurer Montgomery Langdon, a functional alcoholic with a special set of skills that include hunting, taxidermy, and working with dangerous animals, as mayordomo for the isolated estate occupied by Doctor Moreau, who is researching creating human/animal hybrids as replacements for rebellious Mayan workers, his daughter Carlota, and the more successful hybrids.

 

Six years later, Montgomery is content in the company of the Moreaus and their hybrids and Carlota has grown into a young woman. Lizdale’s funding is drying up, and the doctor’s research is stalled. Eduardo and Isidro Lizdale arrive without the elder Lizdale’s knowledge demanding men to help chase down Mayan rebels. Carlota defuses the confrontation by inviting them in. She and Eduardo fall in love and he asks her to marry him. Change, and revelations, are coming.

 

The point of view alternates between Carlota and Montgomery. I really liked Montgomery’s voice and enjoyed his character. Carlota frequently grated on me probably due to her naivete and meekness, but she was kind and loyal. Watching their relationship develop was interesting- he was a more thoughtful man than he often appeared.

 

The monstrousness of Moreau and his work is evident to the reader early on but it’s only as Carlota realizes it that we really see it. The monstrousness of the hacenderos, even one as handsome as Eduardo, is easily revealed. The hybrids, who appear to be monsters to the humans, are less monstrous than their creator and those who wish to exploit them.

 

This is a fast, engaging, easy read. You don’t have to be familiar with the source material, but it did enhance my reading experience.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on January 24, 2024 by , Reply

Deserter: Junji Ito Story Collection by Junji Ito

Cover art for Deserter: Junji Ito Story Collection by Junji Ito

Deserter: Junji Ito Story Collection by Junji Ito

Viz Media, 2021

ISBN-13: 9781974719860

Available: Hardcover, Kindle, Comixology

Buy:  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

 

Deserter: Junji Ito Story Collection brings together twelve of the horror mangaka’s earliest works. In “Bio House,” a young woman is invited to a strange meal where the after-dinner digestif is a rather unwelcome surprise. “Face Thief” tells the story of Yumi Machida, a student who transfers to a new school where a girl changes her own face. In “Where the Sandman Lives,” Yuji doesn’t sleep. He asks his friend Mari for help, but what she sees as Yuji’s other half awakens is something she shouldn’t see. There is some really good body horror in this particular story. In “The Devil’s Logic,” classmates of school girl Kazumi Morimoto witness her throwing herself off of a building. One of them discovers why this seemingly happy girl decided to take her own life, only to be compelled to do so himself. “The Long Hair in the Attic” sees Chiemi fall into a deep depression after her boyfriend breaks up with her. She returns home to the news from her little sister that there are rats in the attic. When she wakes in the morning, she discovers a rat has become tangled in her long black hair, so she decides to cut it, with disastrous results. In “Scripted Love,” Takahashi has a bad reputation in a small theatre troupe, but Kaori ignores her friend’s warnings. When Takahashi does finally break her heart, Kaori takes the VHS and script he wrote for her and discovers her true love. A vengeful family hides an army deserter for eight years after the end of World War II in “Deserter.” Other stories in this collection are “The Reanimator’s Sword,” “A Father’s Love,” “Unendurable Labyrinth,” “Village of the Siren”, and “Bullied.”

 

While the stories in this collection are not the strongest in Ito’s career, they are well worth reading. The artwork is definitely early work as well, but it isn’t bad. There is still the good storytelling and excellent body horror Ito fans can expect. This is a must for collectors of his work, and libraries wanting to grow their manga collection. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on January 5, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

 

Cover art for Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Tor Trade, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250794642

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook ( Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com )

 

Unless you are hardcore into extreme horror, you need an iron stomach for this one.

 

Manhunt is a response to gender apocalypse stories, such as Brian K. Vaughan’s Y: The Last Man, which do not address the existence of trans and gender-nonconforming individuals. Unlike those, Manhunt puts trans people front and center.

 

A plague, T. rex, has infected all individuals with a high level of testosterone (mostly men), causing physical and mental disintegration and reducing them to a set of impulses to rape, maim, and kill any living thing nearby. Trans women become manhunters because testicles and kidneys are a source of estrogen, which they need both to be feminized and to overcome the testosterone that would make them vulnerable to T. rex. The flip side of this is that TERFs have taken over and will shoot and kill any trans women. Fran and Beth are manhunters who have an unfortunate encounter with TERFs and are later attacked by a pack of men who rape Beth. They are rescued by a trans man, Robbie, and take their bounty, and Robbie, to Indi, who has medical training and can use the testicles to synthesize estrogen. Indi has been invited to be the doctor for a compound for trans women and brings Fran, Beth, and Robbie with her. While initially this seems a safer path, something is seriously wrong there. There’s a rebellion, the compound burns, and the survivors create a new community and start planning an attack on the TERFs.

 

Ramona is a TERF close to the leader, Teach. She is secretly involved with a trans woman, and when the relationship is discovered her lover is executed and she is put in charge of cleaning out all trans women from the city. Fran gets involved with her and Ramona betrays Teach. However, she is not caught because another woman confesses to helping the trans women. The scene of her execution is incredibly painful and gory. Felker-Martin’s answer to the question of what would happen if men really were out of the picture is that there are women who will step in to do the same kinds of terrible things.

 

This is rage-filled and clearly very personal to the author, who is a trans woman. It doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable or disturbing emotions or situations, I can’t begin to say how difficult this was for me to read and finish, but I also couldn’t look away. It’s a powerful book, with a lot about the value of community, and made me think about the difficulties trans people face that I have the privilege not to reckon with as a cis woman. I think it’s is likely to be a classic in the genre.

 

Contains: transphobia, transphobic slurs, cannibalism, rape, body horror

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on March 27, 2023 by , Reply
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