Bloody creepy story...
"Though I try to talk myself out of it, I know I must see what's behind that door."
-Annabel Lee
After her mother's death, Annabel is summoned to Philadelphia by her father. She is excited to meet her father and hopes this will be a new start. At 17, Annabel dreams of being a surgeon. She has a curiosity and interest in medicine and helping people. While in Siam, Annabel assisted her mother in taking care of the sick and injured. But now, her father has forbidden her from practicing medicine and says that her interest in medicine is unseemly. Annabel is determined to prove him wrong, but at the same time, she worries that he is right and her interest in medicine is somehow wrong.
Philadelphia seems scary and so different from Siam. There have been brutal murders recently. Annabel's new home is filled with secrets and strange comings and goings. Annabel can't help her curiosity and she keeps finding hints of dark happenings in her father's house. Annabel is falling in love with Allan (her father's assistant) and is terrified of Edgar (Allan's cousin). She knows that bad things are happening in the house, but who is responsible? And what goes on in her father's laboratory?
This book is a fabulous mashup of Edgar Allan Poe stories and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is bloody and scary and creepy and I really enjoyed it. I knew about the Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde component and I thought I knew what was going on, but I wasn't sure. Up until the end, I wasn't sure if Annabel was going to be ok or if she was ever going to discover the truth behind her father's experiments. I'm looking forward to the sequel.
Recommended to :
This is a young adult book, but it has a lot of violence, gore and scary themes. So, I would recommend it to older teens and adults. If you like Poe and other gothic type stories, you should enjoy this novel.
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