Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Her Dark Curiosity
Fiction
For ages 14 and up
HarperCollins, 2013 ISBN: 978-0062128027
Several months ago, Juliet Moreau managed to escape her father’s island, and she is now back in London living with Professor von Stein, a man who knew her father many years ago. The professor came to her rescue, making her his ward and now, for the first time in years, Juliet has a lovely home and everything she could wish for. Though she is grateful to the professor for his kindness, Juliet cannot enjoy her new status in life. She spends as much time as she can secretly trying to find a cure for the illness that plagues her. The medicine her father made for her is no longer working, and she fears that a day will come soon when her illness will finally take her over and destroy her.
Then a series of horrible murders occur in the city. The victims all have three long slashes on their bodies and their hearts have been removed. Juliet has seen injuries of this kind before on her father’s island. There was someone there, who was made by her father, who killed people in a similar way. Much of the time her father’s creation was a lovely young man called Edward, but some of the time he was a beast whose lust for killing was dreadful to behold. Juliet was sure that Edward was killed on the island before she left, but what if he wasn’t? What if he is in London killing again?
When Juliet finds out that all the victims were people who had harmed her in some way in the past, she becomes sure that the murderer is indeed Edward and soon enough she meets him. He explains that the beast within him is getting stronger and that he came to London to try to find a cure for his illness. Like Juliet, he is a victim of Doctor Moreau’s experiments and needs help before it is too late. Edward thinks that there is someone in London, someone who backed Dr. Moreau financially, who may have some of the scientist’s papers, papers that might help Edward develop the cure he so desperately needs. It turns out that the backer is none other than Mr. Radcliffe, the father of Lucy Radcliffe, Juliet’s closest friend. Edward has been courting Lucy in an effort to get close to Mr. Radcliffe and to find out more about him and a group that he belongs to, which is called the King’s Club.
Desperately, Edward and Juliet try to find a cure to destroy the beast before he completely takes over. The Beast is clever and manipulative. He has no interest in being subdued or destroyed and Juliet knows that she cannot trust him. She also cannot trust that Edward will be able to prevent the Beast from harming her. It is as if Edward is split in two and his two selves are warring with each other.
Then Dr. Moreau’s assistant, Montgomery, appears on the scene. He and Juliet were in love back on the island, but Montgomery insisted on sending Juliet away after Dr. Moreau died. He has followed Edward to London and plans on killing him. All of Dr. Moreau’s beasts have to destroyed for their own sakes as well as for the sakes of others. Juliet eventually tells Montgomery what she has been trying to do for Edward and they join forces. They never imagine that Mr. Radcliffe and his allies have plans of their own, plans that involve resurrecting Dr. Moreau’s appalling experiments.
In this chilling novel the story of Juliet Moreau, which began in The Madman’s Daughter, continues. We learn more about Juliet’s father’s experiments, and we also learn more about his history. It turns out that there are more secrets that need to be revealed, and that Juliet’s efforts to put his father’s horrendous actions behind her will have to wait a while longer. Try as she might, the past is bleeding into the present and it is threatening to take away everything she holds dear.
