When
I found out Gail Carriger was writing a YA series, I was like "HOO-HA!" (Picture this said with great passion,
Al Pacino style J). When I found out the book was going to be
about a finishing school for girls where they learn the fine art of
espionage? Gah! I can't even tell you how excited I was.
Etiquette &Espionage
delivered everything I look for in a Carriger book:
--Characters
you care about
--Plotting
that's out of this world
--A
flair for Victorian fashion
--A
good dose of the ridiculous
--Friendships
and romance and dirigibles, oh my!
Sophronia
Angelina Temminick, our heroine, was a girl after my own heart. She was overly curious. She loved to climb and contemplate the inner-workings
of machinery, and wasn't all that interested in fashion (shocking!). Shipped off by her mother, she goes to Madame
Geraldine's Finishing School for Young Ladies of Quality in a carriage with three
strangers: Dimity and her brother, Pillover, and Madame Geraldine--who may or
may not be an imposter.
When
the carriage is attacked by flywaymen (think hot air balloons operated by men
of criminal intent), the real fun begins.
Sophronia shows her cunning and ingenuity in this first encounter, using
only Pillover's "Depraved Lens of Crispy Magnification" and some
fancy getaway driving to escape.
Sophronia
was a spectacular main character. Like I
said, she was curious enough to land her in loads of trouble--but smart enough
to get her and her friends out of it.
I
really loved all the friendships. Dimity
and Sophronia quickly became besties. With her love of accessories and
bold yet tacky fashion sense, Dimity reminded me of Ivy Hisslepenny (a favorite
from Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series). Dimity had no interest in becoming an evil mastermind, like her parents, and she was a true friend. She and Sophronia couldn't
have been more different on the surface.
But throughout the book, they stand by each other.
Also loved the part where Sophronia goes down to the boiler room and meets the
sooties. Especially, Phineas B. Crow aka
Soap, who develops an immediate sweet spot for Sophronia and even sends a bit
of coal up to her room for her pet mechanimal Bumbersnoot!
Seriously,
you guys, this is why I love Gail Carriger.
I
definitely recommend this book. When you
read a Carriger novel, you can't help but be swept away. There's no one out there, YA or otherwise,
that writes quite like her. Etiquette & Espionage was a great YA
debut, and I can't wait for the second book of the series!
Happy
reading,
Ninja
Girl
P.S. If you enjoyed the Parasol Protectorate, you might recognize a few characters in E&E :-). These were some of my absolute favorite parts, but I didn't want to give them away.
