Karissa E. (ophelia99) reviewed Of Monsters and Madness (Of Monsters and Madness, Bk 1) on + 2527 more book reviews
I got an eGalley of this book to review through NetGalley. I was eager to read this story because it is desribed as a gothic retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's life/stories. While it wasn't a bad story, it definitely didn't have a ton to do with Edgar Allen Poe. He is one of the main characters in the story, but he didn't have a ton of personality. This was more of a retelling of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde mixed with The Island of Dr. Moreau.
Annabel Lee has lived most of her life in a far off middle eastern country with missionaries. Then her and her mother are called home to live with her father in Philadelphia, her mother is very sick and doesnt end up surviving long enough to make the journey. Annabel Lee makes the journey on her own and arrives to find a bleak and damp climate and a father who obviously doesnt want her there. To add to her dismay, there are a rash of grisly murders sweeping through Philadelphia. Annabels only solace is her kind grandfather and her fathers assistants. Her father has two assistants; the cheerful and teasing day assistant Allen and the scary and brooding night assistant Edgar. Annabel has to unravel the mysteries surrounding her fathers household before something horrible befalls her.
You can't help but compare this book to The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd. The darkness and themes of medical experiments and madness are definitely similar. Even the characters in this story are less complex, pale versions of the characters from The Madmans Daughter. I actually liked The Madman's Daughter quite a bit more than this novel.
The characters are pretty stereotypical. Annabel is a beautiful girl with an interest in medicine who has some dark secrets (again very similar to Juliet in the Madman's Daughter). Her father is of the mad scientist type and keeps a lot of secrets from her. There is a love triangle, kind of, between her and Allen and Edgar Poe. Edgar and Allen are both plagued by mental illness and have dark secrets of their own (very similar to Edward in the Madman's Daughter).
There are little blips of poetry and stories from Edgar Allen Poe throughout. However I felt the story was only very very loosely related to him and his history.
If you look at this as a general gothic YA story it is an okay book. If you look at it as some retelling of Edgar Allen Poes life, it is a horrible story. The story was engaging enough, but the characters don't have a lot of depth in them. I also thought it was lacking in description; the surroundings don't really come alive and are hard to picture. The book in general just felt kind of bland, like something was missing.
This is an incredibly quick read and not a lot is resolved by the end of the book. This book mainly just sets up things for the reader. There are very obviously going to be additional books in this series. I found the story vaguely entertaining but just felt like something was missing.
Overall an okay read but somewhat disappointing. If you are into dark gothic retellings of classic literature I would definitely recommend The Madman's Daughter trilogy or The Iron Codex by Caitlin Kittredge over this book. I personally wont be reading anymore books in this series.
Annabel Lee has lived most of her life in a far off middle eastern country with missionaries. Then her and her mother are called home to live with her father in Philadelphia, her mother is very sick and doesnt end up surviving long enough to make the journey. Annabel Lee makes the journey on her own and arrives to find a bleak and damp climate and a father who obviously doesnt want her there. To add to her dismay, there are a rash of grisly murders sweeping through Philadelphia. Annabels only solace is her kind grandfather and her fathers assistants. Her father has two assistants; the cheerful and teasing day assistant Allen and the scary and brooding night assistant Edgar. Annabel has to unravel the mysteries surrounding her fathers household before something horrible befalls her.
You can't help but compare this book to The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd. The darkness and themes of medical experiments and madness are definitely similar. Even the characters in this story are less complex, pale versions of the characters from The Madmans Daughter. I actually liked The Madman's Daughter quite a bit more than this novel.
The characters are pretty stereotypical. Annabel is a beautiful girl with an interest in medicine who has some dark secrets (again very similar to Juliet in the Madman's Daughter). Her father is of the mad scientist type and keeps a lot of secrets from her. There is a love triangle, kind of, between her and Allen and Edgar Poe. Edgar and Allen are both plagued by mental illness and have dark secrets of their own (very similar to Edward in the Madman's Daughter).
There are little blips of poetry and stories from Edgar Allen Poe throughout. However I felt the story was only very very loosely related to him and his history.
If you look at this as a general gothic YA story it is an okay book. If you look at it as some retelling of Edgar Allen Poes life, it is a horrible story. The story was engaging enough, but the characters don't have a lot of depth in them. I also thought it was lacking in description; the surroundings don't really come alive and are hard to picture. The book in general just felt kind of bland, like something was missing.
This is an incredibly quick read and not a lot is resolved by the end of the book. This book mainly just sets up things for the reader. There are very obviously going to be additional books in this series. I found the story vaguely entertaining but just felt like something was missing.
Overall an okay read but somewhat disappointing. If you are into dark gothic retellings of classic literature I would definitely recommend The Madman's Daughter trilogy or The Iron Codex by Caitlin Kittredge over this book. I personally wont be reading anymore books in this series.
Jolene O. (esmestohelit) -
**Thank you EgmountUSA and Netgalley for providing this in exchange for an honest review**
This wasn't a bad book. Everything about it just kind of felt flimsy. The first page was by far the best. We had blood, guts, and the perfect set up for a Gothic Horror. That was unfortunately the only real horror in this title. From here the story is a slow, light gothic with a weak mystery.
Annabel's mother has just died. She leaves the only real home she has ever known to move half a world away to live with her father, who she has never met. Having grown up living with Missionaries in Siam, Philadelphia is a big shock to her. Here she is not allowed to help out like she was in Siam. She is not allowed to dress like she used to. She has to learn to proper ways to greet people. She has to learn what is and what isn't acceptable for a women to talk about. She isn't allowed to continue learning medicine. This is the biggest blow to her. As if learning everything she says and does is considered wrong wasn't enough, she has to worry about a murderer on the loose. A murderer who's victims all have ties to her father
Annabel was a likable character, but she was too weak minded. She was your basic Gothic heroine. Which would be fine, if we weren't expecting her to be more. Throughout the book, she brings up her love of medicine and dreams of becoming a female doctor. When she brings this up to her father, he makes it clear that women have no place meddling in such things. Rather then taking offense, she gets upset by she fact that she upset her father. There is no way a female in those times would ever amount to anything above wife and mother unless they fought for it. Unfortunately, Annabel doesn't have any fight in her.
Mixed with the retelling of Poe's life, there is a bit of another classic horror story. I can't say which one without giving away the big secret, but I figured it out before the half way mark. The author made the same mistake many other authors make: it was too obvious.
I was really irritated by the abrupt ending, but now I see there is a sequel to this. The Ballad of Annabel Lee is due out in Fall 2015. I will probably skip it.
This wasn't a bad book. Everything about it just kind of felt flimsy. The first page was by far the best. We had blood, guts, and the perfect set up for a Gothic Horror. That was unfortunately the only real horror in this title. From here the story is a slow, light gothic with a weak mystery.
Annabel's mother has just died. She leaves the only real home she has ever known to move half a world away to live with her father, who she has never met. Having grown up living with Missionaries in Siam, Philadelphia is a big shock to her. Here she is not allowed to help out like she was in Siam. She is not allowed to dress like she used to. She has to learn to proper ways to greet people. She has to learn what is and what isn't acceptable for a women to talk about. She isn't allowed to continue learning medicine. This is the biggest blow to her. As if learning everything she says and does is considered wrong wasn't enough, she has to worry about a murderer on the loose. A murderer who's victims all have ties to her father
Annabel was a likable character, but she was too weak minded. She was your basic Gothic heroine. Which would be fine, if we weren't expecting her to be more. Throughout the book, she brings up her love of medicine and dreams of becoming a female doctor. When she brings this up to her father, he makes it clear that women have no place meddling in such things. Rather then taking offense, she gets upset by she fact that she upset her father. There is no way a female in those times would ever amount to anything above wife and mother unless they fought for it. Unfortunately, Annabel doesn't have any fight in her.
Mixed with the retelling of Poe's life, there is a bit of another classic horror story. I can't say which one without giving away the big secret, but I figured it out before the half way mark. The author made the same mistake many other authors make: it was too obvious.
I was really irritated by the abrupt ending, but now I see there is a sequel to this. The Ballad of Annabel Lee is due out in Fall 2015. I will probably skip it.
