I had never heard the original story and so every plot point was fascinating to me (and the mild reveal of the hybrids got me, I loved it).

The only thing making this 4 instead of 5 stars is I didn't enjoy that every single thing that happened had to be repeated in the next chapter from the other character's pov. It really slowed down the narrative and that's the one thing with multi-pov books I don't enjoy - even when it's only 2 povs doing it. I love her writing and it's strong enough to give an idea of what a character thinks even when we're not living in their head - but it was aggravating that every little thing that happened we had to go back to the beginning of the day essentially to relive the chapter, just with slightly different thoughts behind it.

The only other issue I had was the romance/not romance between the two leads, as there wasn't really any reason for Montgomery to be so attracted to Carlota when she was 20 and he was 35, and he knew her since she was 14. It wasn't so much the age difference, but him working there since she was so young made it kind of iffy to me - especially since the book itself felt like it couldn't decide if he was a legitimate or good choice, and so it never really resolved it. I liked Montgomery, and I think if Carlota was older when he started working it could have worked, even with it not being resolved - but instead I spent the entire novel almost afraid and expecting them to get together, and trying to decide whether I wanted them to or not. It was kind of distracting. I get the idea of having another person be like, hey Carlota is attractive and worthy of it despite [spoilers] but I don't think him being sexually attracted to her necessitated him still caring for her.

Ehhhhh. I’m a massive fan of SMG’s writing and storytelling skills, but this book fell a little flat for me. As someone who’s never read the original Island of Dr. Moreau, I find the concept of the story very intriguing. Despite that, the flow of the plot was confusing at times and the characters within were two dimensional at best. Could’ve done with skipping out on this one. Not entirely horrible, but not great—just didn’t connect with this one as much.

I was worried this book was going to be a 2.5 or 3 star because of certain subplots lined up in the middle. I trusted Silvia to resolve then with an unexpected twist and she delivered a satisfying ending—3.5 stars.

While I don't think this one is as strong as Mexican Gothic or Gods of Jade and Shadow, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. There's also a possibility that since I never read the HG Wells original, some references are going over my head. Whatever - Moreno-Garcia could write a Cheesecake Factory menu and I'd read it.

Non-spoiler spoiler: I can never play that CAH card "Clamping down on a gazelle's jugular and tasting its warm life waters" again without thinking of this book.