Etiquette & Espionage

I bought this because it was recommended in a list of “steampunk novels,” and I’ve always been a little interested in that genre.

It’s… okay. First of all, an unbeknownst to me, it’s a young adult novel. Additionally, it seems to be targeted to teenage girls.

Sophronia is a girl from a wealthy family in 1851. The world she lives in is mechanized, with robot servants and such, and also – weirdly – vampires and werewolves. She is selected for “Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality” – “the “etiquette” of the title – which turns out to be some secret place to develop spies to combat evil forces.

It’s all very Harry Potter-ish. The finishing school is clearly set up as Hogwarts. It’s a flying contraption, held aloft by balloons and powered by a big steam engine.

The actual plot is thin. There’s a McGuffin in “the prototype,” which was some part of a communications device. They have to find and recover this, with the help of the corresponding boy’s school, before the bad guys get it.

I didn’t love, but I’m not the target audience. The whole thing is designed as Book #1 in a series, so it’s a lot of scene-setting, and I imagine some of it becomes important later on.

Also, it’s got me thinking that steampunk is a very visual genre. I haven’t read any other steampunk novels, but I’m wondering how well it translates to words. As they were explaining things, I had some idea in my head of what it should look like, but the magic just wasn’t there. I feel like you have to see it to really get in the mood.

The author also has an adult series so maybe I should try that. (But, honestly, I wasn’t prepared for the paranormal aspects of it – the vampires and werewolves kind of threw me.)

Book Info