Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey for the copy of this ARC.

"We all have an animal double, Englishman."

Things I know I love: gorgeous book covers and Silvia Moreno-Garcia books.

This is a take on The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells and I loved going into the book knowing that I could totally trust Silvia to take a classic and build on it to make it an amazing new work of literature. You definitely do NOT have to have familiarity with the classic story, and can just Google the background if you really want to... that's what I did!

This book was enthralling. The setting of Yaxaktun for Dr. Moreau's hybrid animal experiments was set up so well, balanced perfectly to keep the funding coming in and the hybrids out of sight. Carlota, his daughter, is the obviously the shining star and I just absolutely loved her and found myself cheering for her the whole time. The book is told between her POV and that of Montgomery, and Englishman who ends up working for Dr. Moreau, and together we get a sci fi / his fic / horror combo novel that is hard to put down. While many parts were predictable, I was excited to keep reading to see them play out and was impressed with Silvia's writing at every turn.