Truly one of the most delightful wtf reading experiences I have ever had. The Album of Dr. Moreau is an unhinged mashup of: a classic 19th century novel, a hilarious critique of boy band hysteria, and somehow also a poignant anti-animal testing treatise. Daryl Gregory has penned a truly WyLd genre mishmash that I’d love to see one of my favourite Korean filmmaker/genre chameleons adapt into a feature one day -excuse me while I draft lengthy letters to Bong Joon Ho and Joon-Hwan Jang pleading my case.

Thank you Netgalley and Tor for the arc in exchange for this reformed 90s boy band fanatic’s honest review.

This is unlikely anything that Daryl Gregory has written before, and possibly unlike anything I've read before, I loved it! This story has heart, humor, and a pretty good mystery. Not to mention human/animal hybrids that just so happen to be a very successful boy band. When their manager is murdered a detective, whose daughter happens to be a huge fan of the group, is tasked with solving the crime. Along the way secrets are revealed, and many twists and turns occur. I only wished it was longer as I the story doesn't lend itself to a sequel though I could be wrong.

I requested this one because it might be a 2021 title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book is not my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one rather than push myself to finish it only to give it a poor review.

Una de las novedades más esperadas de principios de este año era esta novela corta de Daryl Gregory, autor que además ha anunciado su presencia en el festival Celsius de este año. The Album of Dr. Moreau narra la investigación de un asesinato, en el más puro estilo de «misterio en habitación cerrada», pero como los investigados son personas con ADN animal, el toque de ciencia ficción es fundamental en el propio desarrollo de la historia.


Esta obra tiene varios puntos a favor, empezando por su brevedad y siguiendo por su tono humorístico constante. No sé si habrá una clasificación en los récords Guiness sobre el mayor número de juegos de palabras con animales por página, pero si la hubiera Gregory tendría que estar en lo más alto. Si esta historia se acabara traduciendo al español, el traductor tendría ante sí una labor peliaguda, imagino que se resistiría como gato panza arriba.

Como he dicho con anterioridad, los principales sospechosos del asesinato son híbridos de animales y personas, que además forman una boy-band en los 90, en pleno auge de este tipo de bandas (lo puedo atestiguar como antigua víctima de esas sibilinas campañas de marketing). Los cinco personajes tienen sus características propias, ya que su ADN corresponde a distintos animales (ocelote, murciélago, pangolín, bonobo y elefante) y esto influye definitivamente en su personalidad, siendo difícil discernir quién será la oveja negra a quien le corresponderá pagar el pato.

Me gusta especialmente el personaje de la investigadora que se hará cargo del caso, una mujer latina que tuvo su momento de fama en la infancia como ayudante de su padre en espectáculos de magia teatrales y que tiene fama de buena mano en el tratamiento de los famosos. Es un personaje creíble, que tiene que echar mano de la familia cuando su labor policial le exige turnos incompatibles con la conciliación. En definitiva, algo muy natural que centra una historia que podría llegar a ser demasiado fantástica.

Como tampoco quiero vender la piel del oso antes de cazarlo, no entraré más en la trama propiamente dicha, dejando a vuestra interpretación si la resolución del caso os parece satisfactoria o no. Yo al menos me he divertido mucho leyendo esta historia, aunque haya requerido algo de suspensión de la incredulidad por mi parte. Os lo recomiendo.

This story was so much fun. A hotel mystery with a boy and of human/animal experimental creatures. It was packed full of references and puns and just had a great time with itself. Highly recommended! Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the eARC.

Review posted on Goodreads and StoryGraph. Review to come on Instagram.

It feels like a long time since I last read something by Gregory. I’ve enjoyed his work ever since I read Afterparty. He has a great writing and storytelling style. This new novella is a fantastic read: an intriguing, inventive science-fiction twist on detective fiction and pop culture. I really enjoyed this.

One quick aside: As I have neither read the book, nor seen the movie adaptation, I wondered how closely this novella was linked to The Island of Dr. Moreau. Turns out, not particularly — someone at one point makes a comment about the band’s manager taking his name from the H.G. Wells story, and there is a clear influence in some of the story aspects, but you do not have to have read Wells’s story in order to enjoy or follow Gregory’s.

The novella opens with T.S. Elliott’s “Five Rules of Detective Fiction”, taken from his 1927 omnibus review of nine Wilkie Collins mystery novels. They’re quite strict rules, and while they do appear somewhat sensible, if your intent is to write a truly realistic, utterly grounded in reality mystery story… it becomes quite clear that Gregory has a rather different intent. In fact, he goes on to break each of the rules — and quite brilliantly, in my opinion.

The Album of Dr. Moreau is a locked room mystery featuring a cast of incredible characters. First, we have the human-hybrids who make up the WyldBoyZ band, each of whom has a distinct character (strengths and flaws), and the author does an excellent job of quickly giving us an idea of who they are, what they want, and what their interpersonal relationships are. As the novella unfolds, we learn more about the band members and their past, as well as the situation they are in at present.

Then we have Detective Lucia Delgado and her partner, Detective Mickey Banks. They have a good and easy working relationship, they’re both dedicated to their jobs. Delgado is the primary, with the better skills at deduction and critical thinking, with Banks seemingly happy to take the secondary role and wait for Delgado to figure something out (not that he isn’t capable in his own right). Delgado is a single mother, whose daughter is obsessed with the WyldBoyZ. This makes investigating the band, and the potential for one of them being a murderer, a rather delicate exercise for the detective.

Finally, we have the myriad hangers-on and peripheral band-employees. They’re another colourful cast of characters, including the now-murdered manager, his wife, and the band’s most ardent fans, the “Zoomies”/”Zoomandos”. (Another quick aside: Gordon the gopher. Very amusing.) These characters give us a little bit more insight into what the band is like, and also what life is like for a successful boy band — i.e., exhausting, years on the road, plenty of opportunities for mischief and indulgence, strange hangers-on, and so forth.

The Album of Dr. Moreau contains all the hallmarks of a Daryl Gregory work: gentle humour sprinkled throughout, excellent pacing, engaging and well-realized characters, very well-composed writing, and an expertly crafted plot. As it’s a novella featuring a boy band — albeit, a rather unique one — the novella also includes some amusing commentary on pop music, band rivalries, and more. (And also a well-used “Oops, I did it again.”) There is also some good examination of mysteries, too.

I really enjoyed this: it’s clever, fun, and very well-written. While the novella does have a clear and definite ending, I’d nevertheless be interested in reading more stories featuring Delgado — given that she’s an LVPD detective, one assumes Las Vegas would be a great place to locate a crime/mystery series with a difference. (Also, I just really like Gregory’s writing and stories, so I’m always keen to read more of it.)

A must read novella. Very highly recommended.

The Album of Dr. Moreau is a locked room style mystery where a tough-but-actually-a-sweetheart detective has 24 hours to figure out who killed a guy after a party, that alone sounds interesting to me but then you throw in the twist and I couldn't read fast enough! The dead guy is a band manager and the band he manages; The WyldBoyz are a popular boy band (think Backstreet Boys) made up of genetically altered human-animal hybrids. There's Devin, "the romantic one" who's mixed with bonobo, Matt, "the funny one" who's a giant bat, Bobby, "the cute one" who's part cat and has claws, Tusk, the hybrid elephant and "smart one" and my favorite; Tim, "the shy one" who's mostly pangolin. Tim's stress management consists of burrowing into a pillow fort and "contemplating future dooms," which is super relatable because that's also how I handle stress.
Each chapter is a new song title, which was fun and I liked getting to know each "boy" and why they each had their own reasons for wanting their manager dead. There were so many puns, which was a true delight to read. Honestly, my only complaint was that I wanted the book to keep going long after things were resolved.

If you like puns, mystery and can appreciate the title and the inspiration behind it, you'll love this!

When a murder happens in Vegas following the concert of a boy band, nothing new--unless the band is a group of genetic hybrids from the Island of Dr. Moreau. Detective Luce Delgado is on the line, but her young daughter is a big fan of the WyldBoyZ, and Luce doesn't want to disappoint her by not giving them every benefit of the law. Gregory has been producing wonderful speculative fiction for years, and one of his greatest strengths is his ability to remain unpredictable. A great novella, from a major talent!

This novel is bonkers. Absolutely bananapants in the best possible way. It’s loosely inspired by H. G. Wells’s The Island of Doctor Moreau, but it’s set in a contemporary hotel, and the animal-human hybrids are a boy band, and also it’s a traditional mystery. The cute one has ocelot DNA and a substance-abuse problem. The smart one is an elephant-hybrid who’s good at music production. The shy one is a pangolin in a pillow fort. And a tough cop with a heart of gold has less than 24 hours to figure out which of them has murdered their terrible, predatory manager. I want to read this novel again immediately.

I LOVED THIS SO MUCH!!!!!

This was just the greatest. A locked-room mystery featuring a boy band comprised of human-animal hybrids called The WildBoyZ.? Yes, please! And there are SO MANY PUNS! Was this written just for me?!

The author does some really excellent work setting the structure of this story up; it allowed him to switch perspectives really fluidly, back and forth between the members of the band and the detective investigating the murder, Luce Delgado, who is a total badass.

The murder is tricky and kept me guessing. The banter between Delgado and her punny partner is great. Everyone is generally good, and the writing about the music - I’m not exaggerating when I say that I cried. When I got to the end, I went back to the beginning to read the intro all over again and it is just *chef’s kiss.*

This is a special novella from Tordotcom. I feel extremely lucky to have gotten to read an advanced copy. It’s already one that I’m yelling at everyone to preorder immediately.

Truly bizarre and tons of fun, this is a locked-room murder mystery featuring a boy band that's a bit unusual, to say the least.

Whether you're familiar with H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau and recognize the references or not, the genetically engineered members of The WyldBoyZ make for an outrageous assortment of human/animal hybrid "beast men", with all the usual hilarious melodrama you'd expect from a boy band, plus some deeper, darker secrets buried in their mysterious past.

Overall, an incredibly odd, amusing, and even sweet at times, twist on a conventional genre. Mix in some Daryl Gregory and you get a blast of fun, weird magic that was truly an enjoyable read.