Etiquette and Espionage

 

The title alone made me pick up this book, not to mention the steampunk aesthetics. In fact, I didn’t read the premise of the book when I picked it up and started reading.

All growing up, I imagined being the daughter of a titled Lord and Lady of France or England. At some point, my mom told me about how a “proper lady” scoops her soup away from her body, and then up to her lips. Why that made eating (drinking?) soup proper, I’ll never know, but it did stem a passion for being a well-put together individual, which exuded in a quiet, fairly matured seeming bookworm.

The idea is simple, yet well played. This Steampunk novel, Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger, is about a young, rambunctious 14 year old girl, named Sophronia, whom can’t help but getting in trouble. Climbing dumbwaiters (and breaking them for their materials), taking mechanical clocks apart. Typical boy in girl’s garb, she sees no use or need in the art of being a woman when acting a boy is more fun and gratifying. Her mother, Mrs. Temminnick is desperate to reform her daughter, whom gets a scholarship of sorts into Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

There, she finds the Academy is more than what appearences may seem. They do learn the fine art of dance, dress, etiquette, but also learn to use their feminine wiles and quick wit to dish out death and espionage.

 To be honest, the book was a little disappointing. First things first, I hated the names of just about everyone in the book. The ideas were solid and the characters were fairly rounded, it held the same writing style as Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush, series. There were werewolves, vampires, and Picklemen, but, while entertaining, is certainly not a book to enthrall you. Seeing as this is part of a series, I will endeavor to finish and record the findings here. Once I start a storyline, my brain is wired to finish it. Otherwise, I begin to dream up all sorts of endings and scenarios. Sometimes, that works out wonderfully as the book ends up trumping my imagined endings, even surprising me! Other times, it’s a sad, sad moment, when the book continues on it’s same beaten path and the writing fails to improve.

Hopefully, this is one book that will rise out of it's slightly mundane writing style to support its great ideas.

In a Nutshell:
-Steampunk
-Finishing School
-Espionage and Murder training
-Vampires, Werewolves, and Picklemen
-Part of a Series

Overall Rating: 6.5/10