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ed_moore's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
“These seeming men and women about me are indeed men and women, men and women forever, perfectly reasonable creatures full of human desires and tender solicitude emancipated from instinct and are slaves of no fantastic law, being altogether distinct from the beast folk. Yet I shrink from them.”
Once again I wasn’t a huge lover of a book by HG Wells. His writing just doesn’t quite work for me. ‘The Island of Dr Moreau’ follows Edward Prendick who is shipwrecked on a remote tropical island used by a Victor Frankenstein-esque doctor who transforms animals into imitations of humans. It was quite similar to Mikhail Bulgakov’s ‘The heart of a dog’ in this sense yet Bulgakov did a much better job in exploring this. Wells’ sci-fi has undertones of racism and explicit themes of animal cruelty throughout, which Prendick is somewhat a figure exposing this but also his sympathy is very limited and often leads to violence. There are also traits of Wells’ writing which feature here as I have observed in others of his work, principally the fallback of saying “these creatures were indescribable to my human mind” to paraphrase and then proceeds to not convey to the reader what he is talking about, almost just because its a science fiction Wells uses that as a fallback for lazy writing. I can commend unlike others in this case that the characters were actually named, there were few of them so I had a good understanding of them and development was okay, good for Wells’ standard at least.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty
trin's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Not Wells' best, and yet indubitably a classic. ("The house of pain!") Moreau's original methods of creation manage to be far creepier than anything later films have come up with -- cloning? Yawn. Unfortunately, there also manages to be a lot of casual racism/antisemitism, including several lines that had me saying "yikes!" and making the grimace emoji 😬 irl. It's not entirely clear how much of this is actually Wells and how much his -- clearly and intentionally -- flawed narrator, but it still takes the modern reader aback. Nevertheless, this remains a swift and effective piece of horror.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Moderate: Racism and Antisemitism
terrortwilight's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Body horror
katenovah's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
ethant's review against another edition
dark
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Body horror
asphodelrose7's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Body horror, Gun violence, Blood, and Stalking
Minor: Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
chloro16's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty
alienexpert's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.0
A decent classic read, but left me wanting a bit more substance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Physical abuse, Torture, and Alcohol
irene_addler's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
"But there are times when the little cloud spreads, until it obscures the whole sky. Then I look about me at my fellow men, and I go in fear."
On my journey through the classics of horror, I knew I would need to traverse The Island of Doctor Moreau. Despite getting fairly short, this story is quite the ride.
We start by knowing how the story ends. While there's potential for that to ruin the story, this story is absolutely not made worse for it. In fact, watching how Prendick gets to the island and simply following the journey was wonderful. I believe that helps offset some of the harder moments in the book. No matter what, the reader always knows there is hope.
I didn't find Prendick very likeable. He felt quick to judge others--though he is one of the most likeable characters in the book. However, most of his decisions make sense, and there are periods of humor in what could have been a horribly depressing book.
The body horror in this story had me literally cringing, and I wouldn't say it was a particularly graphic book. It's one of those stories where what is not shown makes it all the worse.
I think there's more in this story which could have been dug deeper into, but not every horror has to have deep discussions about morality--though that certainly is a topic. I'm also still confused as to why the experiments were happening. Moreau has a long monologue about it and perhaps the length made me glaze over and miss the point, but my understanding leaves me confused and thinking that his goals make no sense with his experiments.
I listened to the audio book narrated by Jonathan Keeble, and I think he's a great at creating unique voices, but there were times I wasn't sure who was talking and sometimes it was a bit much for me, but given how picky I am with narrators and that I finished this book, I think he was definitely a solid narrator. I wouldn't seek a book out to listen to him specifically, but I would absolutely listen to him narrate a book again.
Overall, this is a great book for those who want to dive into classic horror, but I wouldn't say it's a must read for everyone else.
On my journey through the classics of horror, I knew I would need to traverse The Island of Doctor Moreau. Despite getting fairly short, this story is quite the ride.
We start by knowing how the story ends. While there's potential for that to ruin the story, this story is absolutely not made worse for it. In fact, watching how Prendick gets to the island and simply following the journey was wonderful. I believe that helps offset some of the harder moments in the book. No matter what, the reader always knows there is hope.
I didn't find Prendick very likeable. He felt quick to judge others--though he is one of the most likeable characters in the book. However, most of his decisions make sense, and there are periods of humor in what could have been a horribly depressing book.
The body horror in this story had me literally cringing, and I wouldn't say it was a particularly graphic book. It's one of those stories where what is not shown makes it all the worse.
I think there's more in this story which could have been dug deeper into, but not every horror has to have deep discussions about morality--though that certainly is a topic. I'm also still confused as to why the experiments were happening. Moreau has a long monologue about it and perhaps the length made me glaze over and miss the point, but my understanding leaves me confused and thinking that his goals make no sense with his experiments.
I listened to the audio book narrated by Jonathan Keeble, and I think he's a great at creating unique voices, but there were times I wasn't sure who was talking and sometimes it was a bit much for me, but given how picky I am with narrators and that I finished this book, I think he was definitely a solid narrator. I wouldn't seek a book out to listen to him specifically, but I would absolutely listen to him narrate a book again.
Overall, this is a great book for those who want to dive into classic horror, but I wouldn't say it's a must read for everyone else.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail