The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

Title: The Girl in the Steel Corset (The Steampunk Chronicles #1)
Author: Kady Cross
Reviewer: Karen
Genre: YA Steampunk
Rating: Cross between Like
Alerts/Warnings: Some blood, Mild Swearing
Premise: "Finley, who has a beastly alter ego inside of her, joins Duke Griffin's army of misfits to help stop the Machinist, the criminal behind a series of automaton crimes, from carrying out a plan to kill Queen Victoria during the Jubilee" (King County Library System).
Opinion: This is only the second ever Steampunk book that I've read (the first being The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby). I have mixed feelings about it. Overall, I really enjoyed the plot. It reminded me a lot of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which I quite enjoyed. And if you read her acknowledgements, the author was intentionally trying to cross the feel of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen mixed with the X-Men. I loved Finley and learning of her family history as she does. I think her background and the internal struggles she deals with in her character arc make her a very fascinating person.  I love some of the interpersonal relationships and the friendships that they try to build upon. I also admire the author's imagination, item creation, and overall setting.


The difficulty I had with this book is that the main cast of characters are all supposed to be around 16/17/18 years old and I kept forgetting that. I saw them as being in their twenties at least. Plus, probably because its her first novel, there were some descriptions that seemed repetitive of some of the characters that pulled me out of the story a little. It also did bother me that Finely is blond in the book, but that the book cover shows her as being brunette, but that's a superficial nitpicking issue on my part.  I'm sure these very minor issues will be quickly overcome the more books that the author writes. However, that did not stop me from already requesting the sequel from my public library. I'm highly looking forward to seeing were the story goes next in The Girl in the Clockwork Collar.