DNF Review – The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club, Book 1) by Theodora Goss (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 417 pages
Publisher: S&S/Saga Press
Release Date: June 20, 2017
ASIN: B01LYPZUI5
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club
Source: Borrowed ebook from library
Rating: 2/5 stars

“Mary Jekyll, alone and penniless following her parents’ death, is curious about the secrets of her father’s mysterious past. One clue in particular hints that Edward Hyde, her father’s former friend and a murderer, may be nearby, and there is a reward for information leading to his capture…a reward that would solve all of her immediate financial woes.

But her hunt leads her to Hyde’s daughter, Diana, a feral child left to be raised by nuns. With the assistance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Mary continues her search for the elusive Hyde, and soon befriends more women, all of whom have been created through terrifying experimentation: Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherin Moreau, and Justine Frankenstein.

When their investigations lead them to the discovery of a secret society of immoral and power-crazed scientists, the horrors of their past return. Now it is up to the monsters to finally triumph over the monstrous.”

Series Info/Source: This is 1st book in The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club. I borrowed this on ebook through my library.

Thoughts: I got about 70% of the way into this and finally set it aside. I am a fan of Theodora Goss; I have read “In the Forest of Forgetting” (loved it), “The Thorn and the Blossom” (liked it), “Red as Blood, White as Bone” (liked it), and “Come See the Living Dryad” (liked it). So I was really looking forward to a series by Goss, and the theme of this series (a mash-up of a bunch of Victorian horror/monster stories) is right up my alley. Unfortunately, this ended up feeling protracted and boring with jarring interruptions that are initially confusing and later just annoying. It was taking me forever to read this, and I realized I was dreading sitting down to continue it, so I set it aside.

The series follows numerous female characters. We start primarily by reading about Mary, who is left destitute after the death of her mother. Through various circumstances, she finds out she has a half-sister and gets entangled in helping Sherlock Holmes with a series of murders that are very Jack the Ripper like. Along the way, she starts to acquire other young women who are bound together by their strangeness and their fathers’ link to a secret society.

Throughout the book, there are strange “current” conversations between the girls interjected in the middle of the story. These are very confusing at first because we haven’t met any of the girls yet. As a result, reading about them talking to each other without any context doesn’t make much sense. As you continue and you start to understand who these girls are, the conversational interjections switch from confusing to jarring and a bit annoying. I think they are meant to be funny and cute, but to me, they were just repetitive and annoying.

I love the idea of a mash-up between a whole bunch of Victorian monster horror fictions. This story touches on Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, The Island of Dr. Moreou, as well as Sherlock Holmes. It is very Penny Dreadful-esque and I love the idea behind it. I enjoyed the idea behind a lot of the characters as well. We are mainly dealing with the daughters of these infamous men, as they try to recover from the monstrous transformations performed on them by their fathers. Unfortunately, the girls are introduced fairly quickly and don’t have a lot of depth to their personalities. I found it hard to engage with them and really get drawn into their stories.

Where things really started to fall apart for me were around the wordiness and the pacing. Things are over described, often repeated, and very drawn out. The huge issue of Mary’s finances is somewhat brushed to the side. Where initially she was worried about making it a week financially, suddenly she has a number of other girls living with her, and they are going to be okay for the near future. Strangely, the matter of how Mary was going to pay to support this collection of monstrous girls was more compelling to me than the main murder mystery…and that right there was part of what was wrong with this story.

At about 70% of the way in, I realized I just didn’t care anymore. I know Mary and Sherlock will solve the murders. Given all the foreshadowing and jarring conversational interjections by the girls, I know that they find a way to make it financially. We know all this very early in the story. I realized I was skimming the pages and just reading the main story dialogue between characters (skipping the annoying interjections and all the lengthy drawn out descriptions) and decided it was time to put this down. According to my kindle, I had another nearly two hours of reading to get through the rest and I just didn’t have it in me.

My Summary (2/5): Overall I love the premise here and find some of the characters intriguing. However, the jarring interjections throughout and the incredibly long repetitive descriptions made this a horrible slog to get through. I struggled on for quite awhile because I really, really love the idea of a Victorian horror mash-up like this; especially since it features the daughters of the infamous men from these stories. I just couldn’t get through it, and finally decided that I had struggled enough and set it aside 70% of the way in. I won’t be reading anymore of this series (obviously) and will be more careful about which Goss stories I pick up in the future. Maybe Goss is a better short story writer than a full length novelist.