The prose is engaging and spectacularly engaging.  Very uncanny, and the slow reveal was well done. Definitely one of those novels that has you considering specific topics (in this case religious control and humanity in comparison with animals). 

I don't know that I've ever really heard of The Island of Dr Moreau before, and I certainly didn't know what to expect when I started reading it, but it's pretty easy to see that it's influenced a lot of body horror that's come after it.