Review by Booklist Review
This Darwinian historical sf, translated from French, is unlike today's typical fare, a fact that may appeal to some and repel others. An omniscient narrator takes readers, in three-page bursts, in and out of the heads of an array of characters: Manon, the orphaned Moth girl in hiding; John, the Machiavellian scientist hunting her; Lbn, the Moth boy sent to retrieve her; Molly, the kindly poet who takes her in; Giulio, the dog protector; an incompetent detective; his mysterious subordinate; a lab rat; and others. These revolving perspectives are broken up by intermittent letters from Professor Humphrey--the scientist who discovered the Moth people and fathered Manon before his murder--to his friend Charles Darwin. It's all woven into a tight-knit plot, but the structure means no one gets much depth and readers have no place to anchor any sympathy. That's okay, as the book is more concerned with using plot points to explore philosophy--the relationship between "science and conscience"--than character or story, which it does successfully. Young readers interested in evolutionary science will have much to ponder.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
At once beautiful and sinister, Brière-Haquet's speculative historical novel combines Darwinist philosophy with the labyrinthine narrative of a hunted child in Victorian-era London. Cocooned by hundreds of butterflies after escaping the carriage wreck that killed her guardian, naturalist Professor Humphrey, young Manon emerges from the woods only to endure seven unpleasant years at an orphanage. The girl sticks out among her peers: she doesn't speak; is afraid of fire; and has "large, red, tender eyes," marble-white skin, and spectacularly fine hair. Escape lands her at the home of kindhearted poet Molly, who must soon fend off a tenacious homicide detective. Led by the late professor's former secretary, two henchmen ruthlessly seek Manon in the name of nefarious science, an arc involving the startlingly violent aftermath of both torture and murder. Interspersed with Humphrey's letters to fellow Beagle voyager Charles Darwin, elegantly rendered third-person chapters alternate among myriad peripheral perspectives, including of a pinned butterfly and a wise dog. Characterization dips into anti-fat bias, and the frequently changing lens sometimes slows the tale's momentum, but luminous sentences offers a singular mixture of tense mystery and sharp rebuke of cruelty toward the natural world. Characters cue as white. Ages 10--up. (Sept.)
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Review by Horn Book Review
Horror, mystery, sci-fi, historical fiction of sorts -- this story partakes of all four. Manon is a tiny child when she's left in the woods after a carriage accident and a scientist's violent murder. Saved from the killers by a flock of butterflies, she's rescued by a peasant who commits her to a convent school -- whence she escapes, only to become the victim of a cruel scientist. But who -- and what -- is this child with red eyes? Briere-Haquet keeps the answer well concealed. Switching points of view often, the omniscient narrator gives us bits of story through many characters -- among others, a peasant, a detective, a poetess, a nun, even a dog. Letters to Charles Darwin from the murdered scientist are interspersed throughout, raising questions about humanity and humility (e.g., are the ways humans organize themselves the only ways to be?). A novel of ideas cloaked in skulduggery and populated with textbook villains, the story's momentum is created by the threat of mysterious menace hanging over Manon. The tale is set in 1881 London but includes a few vintage American colloquialisms ("gosh darn it," says one character) while suggesting an environmental message pertinent to the present. Deirdre F. Baker September/October 2022 p.78(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A British naturalist's young daughter draws seekers benign and decidedly otherwise in this French import. In a tale with a powerful premise despite notably ragged execution, Manon, who is mute and described as resembling people with albinism, spends seven years in a convent orphanage in London while both her father's killer and her mother's secretive folk search for her. Her name is based on a French pun that is pointed out twice but doesn't work in English. As Manon's true nature is gradually revealed through her father's letters to his great friend Charles Darwin, the pursuit finally comes close enough to send her fleeing into the streets to take refuge with Molly, a bighearted street poet with a loyal and unusually intelligent dog. Readers are likely to feel whipsawed, as the barrage of very short chapters brings frequent changes in scene, point of view, and tone. Several victims are killed and mutilated in gruesomely explicit detail; Molly and even the dog also narrate, sometimes to comical effect. The thoroughly demonized bad guys--who want Manon as a scientific specimen and key to her father's vast fortune--are pitted against pursuers who, due to parallel evolution, look human(ish) but have very different ancestors and intimate connections with the natural world. Brière-Haquet folds in some topical themes as she steers events to a soaring climax and forced but tidily happy ending. Both the omniscient narration and other characters use demeaning language in reference to Manon's eyes and skin, and her characterization evokes common disability tropes. Everyone presents as White. Passionate but patchy in execution. (Eco-fantasy. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
