The Madman’s Daughter, by author Megan Shepherd and published at the end of January, is a science-fiction book about a surgeon pushing the boundaries of nature and science. Taking place in urban London in the late 1800s, it is Shepherd’s first novel.
The book contains vivid settings of bustling lower-class London and a deserted tropical island off the coast of Australia. Shepherd describes the settings in a very detailed and believable way, using lifelike language. She uses imagery to set an eerie tone that is present throughout the novel.
Shepherd creates realistic and round characters with positive traits but also deep internal flaws. Juliet, the main character, is a self-sufficient daughter of a surgeon. She has a darker personality brought on her by her father’s scandal and her rough living situation which makes her less relatable.
Her father is the surgeon and as the title suggests, is mad. His curiosity and his desire to use science and his skills as a surgeon to create a perfect natural phenomenon has driven him crazy and forced him to abandon his family. He is a many-sided character with complex emotions that are rountinely unearthed throughout the book.
The plot is well crafted and has a good pace until halfway through middle. It slows down and drags for a while, with nothing new developing until she arrives at her father’s deserted island. After that the story picks up pace with lots of plot twists and discoveries about the various characters and what they are hiding. This sudden surge of events makes it hard to keep track of all the important clues and foreshadowing Shepherd planted.
An complicated and unnecessary love triangle forms between Juliet, Montgomery (her father’s faithful lab assistant), and a castaway that washed up on the island named Edward.
Juliet faces the tough decision of choosing between these two men, both fighting with each other and for her. While it reveals a lot about each character and was enjoyable to read, it was one more thing in a very complex plot to think about. The ending resolved one major conflict but at the same time another one was unveiled. All loose ends were tied at the end of the novel, but the ending was abrupt but at the same same time left me speechless.
The Madman’s Daughter was a thought provoking intense read, with a fresh new storyline that brought many interesting themes about love, duty and animal instincts to light. It also keeps the reader guessing about the plot, a trait which has become close to extinct in a growing field of overgrown plots and tasteless stories.