Review--The Mad Scientist's Daughter

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The Mad Scientist's DaughterThe Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a lovely novel that built over the time spent reading it, and I'd recommend it, not as a romance, but as women's fiction. At the core of the story it's what the title says: it's about the Mad Scientist's Daughter, Cat.

Cat's world is more futuristic than dystopian, what we might encounter with climate change. Nonetheless, people go shopping, go to school, get jobs, create art and fall in love. Cat's father, far from being the typical "There are some things man was not meant to know!" mad scientist is one of the more sympathetic characters in the novel. Cat's mother is a woman who puts her own career on hold to raise her daughter--parents very much like many of us or our peers.

If anything, Finn is the weakest character, which makes sense. He's a machine. It's her life, and how Finn contributes to it, that make the story truly interesting. Her relationship to the android is more a reflection of who she is as a human being, as an adult, as a woman seeking answers in her own life and place in the world, rather than being a book about the two of them.

The Mad Scientist's Daughter was bittersweet and thoughtful, and I look forward to reading more by this author.


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