Teaser Tuesday #41: The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


This week's teaser comes from the following book:

Title: The Madman's Daughter
Author: Megan Shepherd
Series: The Madman's Daughter, book #1
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: January 29, 2013
Source: ARC received from publisher/egalley via Edelweiss
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

In the darkest places, even love is deadly.

Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.

Inspired by H. G. Wells's classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Madman's Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we'll do anything to know and the truths we'll go to any lengths to protect.

I'm cheating again this week.  :)  Here are my teasers:

"That's admirable, Juliet, but you'd only be in the way.  Science is best left to men.  Women have too delicate a constitution."

-- p. 156 of ARC

and

I pulled at my collar, needing air.  Edward stared at me from across the table, face so slack I might as well have slapped him.  Guilt seized me.  I'd told him I cared about Montgomery, so he shouldn't have been surprised.  But there'd been that night behind the waterfall.  I couldn't pretend that had meant nothing.

-- p. 269 of ARC

First, let's address the first teaser, shall we?  I think whoever said this to our heroine deserves a serious smackdown.  I understand that this was common opinion for the time period, but that doesn't make it any less insulting.

As for the second teaser, I fear I shall have my hands full, determining which boy to swoon over.  Though I hear the particular creepiness of this book vastly overshadows the love triangle.  Here's hoping!  =)

What are you teasing this week?  Be sure to share it in the comments or leave a link so I can stop by!

Labels: dac 2013, gothic mystery, harper-collins, historical fiction, megan shepherd, psychological thriller, retellings, sci-fi, teaser tuesday, the madman's daughter