Gail Carriger’s foray into young adult fiction is set in the familiar world of her Parasol Protectorate series, but with a bit more…everything. Which is funny, because her adult series is pretty awesomely extreme all on its own. This novel drew much more from the steampunk genre than on the supernatural in regards to plot, with more focus on fantastical mechanical creations and devices and less on the political relationships between the worlds of humans, vampires, and werewolves. Unfortunately, all of the world-building backstory that a veteran Carriger reader might want is lost on the focus of adolescent characters and drama.
Because this is definitely a young adult novel, though I in no way mean that in a negative light. However, some young adult novels are called thus because the main characters happen to be younger than adults, and some young adult novels are intentionally targeted to younger readers. This book is the latter. Despite my love of the world and Carriger’s writing, I probably will not continue reading this particular series.
I would recommend this series specifically to middle school readers of either gender (though girls will probably relate more to the main character). I am content to anxiously await the sequel to Prudence!
Rating: 4 (out of 5) stars.
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