Even though I (mostly) knew what was coming the entire time, The Madman’s Daughter really built up suspense well. It’s the kind of book where there’s a lot of build-up in the middle of the book and it all culminates in a downright exciting last 70 pages. Even though I saw all the twists coming(which was a little sad, since I heard so many good things about the plot twists in this book), it was just such a heart-throbbing journey to get to that point. The plot is the best part of The Madman’s Daughter–well-executed, great timing, and thrilling.Juliet is a really bold female character for most of the book. She does things that are not taken lightly in her society. She’s shown to be smart, capable, and resourceful. She’s a character ahead of her time and it shows through. The other characters recognize this and sometimes chastise her, but she does what she wants anyway. Which is great. . . until it involves her love interests, which is where the book lost some of it’s great potential for me.There’s a love-triangle in this book, and it is not done well. I’m of the rare opinion that I actually do like love triangles if they’re well-done; so much so that I have a Goodreads shelf dedicated to this. The Madman’s Daughter did not end up there. I see no merit to the love triangle at all. The two love interests just weren’t different enough for me, and while I enjoy some book’s romance, the entire time Juliet was kissing either one of them or thinking about it I was thinking, “Enough! Stop kissing! You have a whole island of horrifying/exciting around you. I want to get back to that!”.At one point I thought I was going to have to put The Madman’s Daughter back on the shelf because of the horrifying factor, but once I got past one particular part it was definitely do-able. I will admit to skimming certain paragraphs to cut down on the blood–because there is a lot of blood in this book. It isn’t all that scary or gross, but it’s just. . . everywhere. I have a really weird thing with blood. I don’t mind giving blood or seeing my own blood, but I really hate seeing/reading/hearing about other people’s blood, so that’s definitely something I picked up on and something I’d be aware of if you have a similar feel as I do.The best part of this book was the last fifty pages–excitement abounds and the ending is . . . I don’t know what it is, but it’s the type that sticks with you. I saw the twists coming, but I did not see the ending coming and it’s the kind of ending that makes you want more immediately. A cliffhanger, but not one that felt overly gimmicky to me.Final Impression: The Madman’s Daughter does a pretty good job of maintaining a Gothic feel. I enjoyed Juliet’s character and her force of will, but I thought the love triangle was by far the weakest point in the book and brought it down a lot. It takes up too much time, it’s not well-done, and the book would have been more exciting without it. The plot was well-executed and left me wanting more. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the sequel, but hoping that the love triangle disappears all together(unlikely, but I will continue to hope). 3/5 stars.
