#ya librarian

reading an article on collection development and book recommendations for teens and came across this passage 

Let me just go ahead and say it: Gail Carriger’s YA Steampunk novel has just the best cover--the background design with the floral motif and gears, the model, the dress, and the random scissors...I can’t get enough of it. 

I’ve been a fan of the Steampunk aesthetic for a while now--let’s just call it a remnant of my days studying Gothic literature in college. Replace monsters and repression with self-aware machines and inventions and you have Steampunk. While some ladies are still treated with kid gloves and taught to eschew all non-ladylike behavior in this genre, there is a rebellious streak that comes with the scientific innovation of the genre. 

Sophronia Temminnick is an incorrigible teenager, and her poor mother is at her wit’s end with the girl’s climbing, tinkering, and snooping. Luckily for Sophronia’s mother, a chance encounter (that was naturally, perfectly orchestrated) with the proprietress of Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality leads to an option for finishing school--meaning that Sophronia is out of her hair while being trained in the arts of womanhood. Sophronia, naturally, abhors the very idea. However, Sophronia soon learns that all is not quite as it seems at the finishing academy when their carriage is set upon by flywaymen, who seem to be after some sort of mysterious device called simply “the prototype.” Everyone else seems to know more about Miss Geraldine’s school than Sophronia, but no one will tell her what’s going on! It is quite frustrating for the girl.  

When they finally arrive at Miss Geraldine’s academy, it becomes obvious that this a very special place. The academy itself is a giant hovercraft that floats above the moors--practically undetectable at any given time. Miss Geraldine is, of course, not the woman who came to collect Sophronia, but rather an unassuming woman who has no idea that school is actually a training academy for young spies. Sophronia is a “covert recruit”--a young woman with no family connections who is given very little information about the school while she is in her probationary period. Hijinks ensue when the prototype that the flywaymen are after disappears, and the school is targeted by those dastardly men. Sophronia is under the impression that a fellow student has hidden the device to sell to the highest bidder, and she embarks on a mission to find the prototype and return it to the school. 

If all of this sounds a little too chintzy for your tastes...this book is probably not for you. It has fun Steampunk technology and a delightful cast of characters, but the language is overly cutesy and reads like a less sophisticated version of a Georgette Heyer novel. I mean that in the fondest sense, of course, but it can be a little bit too much at times. Take, for example, this passage: 

Despite her beauty, she looks, thought Sophronia, a little like a crow. She stared down at her feed and tried to come up with an excuse for her behavior, other than spying on people. “Well, I simply wanted to see how it worked, and then there was this--”

Her mother interrupted. “How it worked? What kind of question is that for a young lady to ask? How often have I warned you against fraternizing with technology?”

Sophronia wondered if that was a rhetorical question and began counting up the number of times just in case it wasn’t. Her mother turned back to their guest.

“Do you see what I mean, mademoiselle? She’s a cracking great bother.”

“What? Mumsy!” Sophronia was offended. Never before had her mother used such language in polite company. 

If the idea of a mechanical dog named Bumbersnoot or a mysterious group of gangsters called Picklemen immediately sets your teeth on edge, I suggest avoiding this book at all costs. 

However, if you are up for a little bit of a romp, replete with werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and cross-dressing Victorians, this may just be the book for you. It has a few madcap adventures (but far too many of those adventures involve outsmarting “mechanicals” which is just a bit boring), budding female friendships, and the barest hints of romance to come. It is tame, to be sure, and a little immature, but the protagonist is only 14. Sophronia’s naivete can be grating at times (especially when she meets a black man for the first time in her life...my god I almost tossed the book aside at that moment), but towards the end of the novel readers see more of the strong and compassionate young woman Sophronia will become. If the remainder of the series follows the Harry Potter structure of storytelling (that is, one book per school year), Sophronia and her friends will grow up and experience darker and more dangerous things. The plot was a bit unsophisticated and predictable, and it certainly has problematic elements, but it might be a fun read for a middle school girl. 

3/5 Stars