The Album of Dr. Moreau (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
I’m a sucker for retellings and also for The Island of Dr Moreau, so I was expecting to love this book. After all, a murder mystery where the five main subjects are all members of a boyband and, oh yeah, also refugees from the Island of Dr Moreau? This was bound to be a good time. What I wasn’t expecting was the heart of the story, which explores the greed and exploitation of human nature, as well as what it means to be human at all. This book is filled with metafiction, witty characters that really do make you understand why tweens would wallpaper their rooms with posters of them, and a frame narrative that gives the whole story a sense of humor and tenderness. Strap yourself in, because this book is a roller coaster and you won’t want to miss out.
— Katherine
This short novella puts such a hilarious and intriguing spin on the beloved concept of H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr Moreau. This story follows a boy band consisting of animal-human hybrids who are refugees from the Island of Dr Moreau and are all suspects of a gruesome murder. I was already expecting to love this book but I was not expecting to feel so deeply for these characters. This book was so easy to follow and effortlessly sucked me right into their universe, I couldn't get enough.
Hannah
— From The Album of Doctor MoreauDescription
A 2022 Sturgeon Award Nominee!
A 2022 Edgar Award Nominee!
Daryl Gregory's The Album of Dr. Moreau combines the science fiction premise of the famous novel by H. G. Wells with the panache of a classic murder mystery and the spectacle of a beloved boy band.
It’s 2001, and the WyldBoyZ are the world’s hottest boy band, and definitely the world’s only genetically engineered human-animal hybrid vocal group. When their producer, Dr. M, is found murdered in his hotel room, the “boyz” become the prime suspects. Was it Bobby the ocelot (“the cute one”), Matt the megabat (“the funny one”), Tim the Pangolin (“the shy one”), Devin the bonobo (“the romantic one”), or Tusk the elephant (“the smart one”)?
Las Vegas Detective Luce Delgado has only twenty-four hours to solve a case that goes all the way back to the secret science barge where the WyldBoyZ’ journey first began—a place they used to call home.
About the Author
Daryl Gregory won the IAFA William L. Crawford Fantasy Award for his first novel, Pandemonium. His second novel, The Devil's Alphabet, was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award and was one of Publishers Weekly's best books of 2009. His novelette "Nine Last Days on Planet Earth" was a Hugo finalist. His short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, and The Year’s Best SF. He has also written comics for BOOM! Studios and IDW. Daryl lives in Oakland, CA.
Praise For…
"[Daryl Gregory] constructs a clever mash-up of H.G. Wells’s The Island of Doctor Moreau, a locked room mystery, and the boy band phenomenon in this zippy but complex tale... [A] quirky and entertaining twist on a classic." – Publisher's Weekly
"Gregory deliberately and imaginatively breaks every one of T. S. Eliot’s “Rules of Detective Fiction,” with which he has prefaced this luminous novella." - Booklist, starred review
"Both unexpected and yet completely satisfying." – Mystery & Suspense Magazine
"A stunning detective story full of all-too-human animals. Reading Daryl Gregory is so much fun you never notice until it's too late that he's got you by the feels, and he's about to squeeze. I loved this hilarious, touching, ridiculous ride." - Sam J. Miller, Nebula Award-winning author of The Art of Starving and Blackfish City
"This book has everything: a genetically engineered boy band, a great detective, a Zima-soaked tour party full of suspects, and a clever locked-room mystery. Funny, smart, and completely satisfying. I devoured it like a delicious grub snack." - Sarah Pinsker, author of A Song For A New Day and We Are Satellites
"Daryl Gregory is terrific, and The Album of Dr Moreau continues his high-roller, high-stakes streak of awesome. I laughed on page one, was horrified by page thirteen, and was delighted till the very end." – Lavie Tidhar
"Meticulous, cunning, and clever." – Elizabeth Bear