The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a clever retelling of H.G. Wells's The Island of Doctor Moreau, by the Mexican Canadian author of Mexican Gothic. The novel focuses on Carlota Moreau, the daughter of an eccentric scientist with the morally questionable mission of perfecting cures for human diseases by creating half-human, half-animal hybrids whose existence, and suffering is deemed to be for the greater good. Moreno-Garcia gives Dr. Moreau’s hybrids greater agency and more of a voice than in Wells’ original, further complicating the ethics at play in the story. The book is set in 1871, a tumultuous moment in Mexican history and the Gothic Victorian elements of the story mingle well with the themes of sexism, class differences, racism, and moral responsibility. This is also a thrilling page-turner, a mixture of horror, romance, and science fiction--the perfect read for October.