Tags
author, book reviews, book, books, characters, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, fantasy, fiction, Frankenstein, literature, novel, plot, read, reader, review, science fiction, scifi, Steampunk, stories, story, The Diabolical Miss Hyde, The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr, urban fantasy, Viola Carr, write, writer, writing
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Scifi, Steampunk, Mystery, Retelling
Pages: 464
Point of View: First (Eliza and Lizzie)
Released: February 10th 2015
Series: Electric Empire 1
Predictability: 3 out of 5 (Where 1 is totally unpredictable and 5 is I knew what was going to happen way ahead of time.)
Source: Bought
My Rating: 7/10 Stars
Warnings: Sex and some grossness (see the bad below)
My Summary:
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’s daughter also has the same affliction. Eliza Jekyll is a scientist and works with the police force. Miss Lizzie Hyde is a thief and likes going to rowdy bars in the bad part of town. Eliza takes a serum to prevent the change, but its starting to not work.
All magic is illegal, so she’s determined to keep her secret, but when a royal society enforcer gets involved with her latest case things get complicated.
My Review:
Let’s see how good Molly’s memory is. I read this book in April, but for some reason I didn’t write a review. (And now I’m angry with my past self.)
This book not only continues Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but Frankenstein too and there’s plenty of originality added in.
The Good:
It’s set in an alternate past, so women are still looked down upon, but both Eliza and Lizzie are strong in their own way and defy convention.
I liked the relationship between the two ‘sisters’ a lot. They started out hating one another, but they still love each other and they come to respect one another over the course of the book. (I’m afraid the sequel will ruin this though based on the description.)
The romance? There were two and oddly I liked the most messed up one the best. (I’m not sure what that says about me.) He sort of reminds me of Hannibal Lector.
This was your basic steampunk world with robots and gadgets. It was mostly sci-fi, but had some Fantasy elements too. (Werewolves, alchemy, and the fey) Eliza’s investigation tools were cool but I didn’t see the reason for the robots, they were just there. (Both her ‘pet’ robot and the guard robots standing around the city.)
Though set in a dark world there’s plenty of light fun dialogue that I enjoyed. The banter wasn’t the best, but it was still cute.
There’s more than one mystery going on and it was all well done. I wasn’t sure who did it until the second half of the book. (Though I did figure it out way before Eliza and Lizzie)
The Bad:
There was a bit of grossness in this book, the case involved women turning up without their limbs, but it mostly didn’t bother me. (And I’m quite the wimp.)
At first if was hard to understand Lizzie. The book starts in her POV and I almost didn’t buy it because of this. I got used to her though and overall I enjoyed her parts.
Verdict: a good, if weird book. (With an awesome cover!)
Have you ever written a review a bit late? This is my first attempt and I’m presently surprised by how much I remembered. (Especially considering how forgetful and scatterbrained I can be.)
