Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Island of Dr. Moreau (H.G. Wells: The Science Fiction Collection)

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Island of Dr. Moreau (H.G. Wells: The Science Fiction Collection) by H.G. Wells

19 reviews

kustardeek's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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captain_capslock's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

Wow. I did not expect this book to be so brutal.

Something that everyone, including every adaptation, gets wrong is that they think he's combining humans and animals. He's not. He's vivisecting animals and surgically deforming their bodies to look more human, believing that if they look at least humanoid they'll suddenly 'become' human. They're just innocent animals living in horrific pain and existential terror. None of this is their fault.

The parallels with colonial racism are obvious, and the metaphor here is so ugly I'm not going to touch it with a ten foot pole, not here at least.

The narrator, Edward Prendrck, is... well, he's evil. Horribly, painfully evil. He's borderline more evil that Moreau himself. Reading the book is made all the more difficult because we're having to listen to his burning hatred for everyone around him, especially the animals. He H A T E S the animals, only because they look weird. He actually uses the word 'hate' on practically every page. Knowing that this is a metaphor for colonialism, this paints a reeeally bad light on our protag here. The part that gave me pause was when he and Montgomery commit a genocide. Here's how he describes it:

"Then we went into the laboratory and put an end to all we found living there."

That's it. They shoot up what is essentially the animal (occupied nations) version of Unit 731 and that's all we get about it. No remorse. No sadness. No Guilt. NO EMPATHY. It never even comes up again.
Absolutely brutal.

Extremely disturbing book. That's not a compliment.

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lanid's review against another edition

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dark mysterious

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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tmholsman_1994's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

First I want to say that this was not as gruesome as I thought it would be. Now it was still hard to read at some parts, but it wasn't as detailed as I thought it would be given the subject matter.

I like the twist at the end where you kind of find out that the whole story was written like a letter, but you aren't sure if it really happened or not. Was there really an island with a mad scientist who experimented with animal/human creatures? Who knows.

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devermismysteris's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? No

1.5

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katenovah's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

3.75

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queenpebbles's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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jillian_hope02's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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marionhoney's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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grinchem's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

I won't deny that the story has its flaws, but overall I still found it interesting and entertaining.

The protagonist is almost comically incurious. Of all the wild things he witnesses, he's generally just focused on himself and doesn't think any further. It plays into the horror, that he may have seen things coming if he had just put a little more thought into the implications of what he had seen.

I felt like the story didn't give enough weight or attention to this brand new developing culture. It was seen through that old colonial British lens of "lesser" and therefore not deserving of attention. But it was consistent with the characters that they view it that way, and considering the book was in part inspired by the new (at the time) theory of evolution, I think it speaks to how people at that time saw an inherent horror in the idea of something not-yet-human. I think the horror for a modern reader is a little different, but the story still holds the power to make you quietly whisper "what the fuck"

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