Journal Entry 1 by piggydiva from Louisville, Kentucky USA on Saturday, June 20, 2009

I received this as an ARC to review and was pleasantly surprised. I am looking forward to the next installment!

• Soulless
• Gail Carriger
• Orbit
237 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
• 978-0-316-05663-2
• $7.99
• October 2009
• 384 pages

Gail Carriger has hit a home run with her first-ever published novel, Soulless. In this unique Steampunk novel about werewolves and vampires, Carriger crafts a new mythology combining the supernatural with the preternatural. The result is a fast-paced, highly entertaining novel full of hilarious and quirky characters.

Alexia Tarabotti is the spinster protagonist, self-assured, extremely intelligent, and deferential to no one, yet still manages being able to maintain the proper innocence of a lady. Her foppish, flaming homosexual Vampire friend, Lord Akeldama, has a never-ending supply of outrageous nicknames for her: little creampuff, fluffy cockatoo, and diminutive gherkin. His diction only adds to his extravagant dress, propensity toward gossip, and overall outrageous eccentricity. Ivy Hisselpenny is her trusty companion with poor taste in headwear. Lord Maccon is the gruff alpha Werewolf love-interest whose inept attempts at wooing Alexia are devilishly funny.

The humor throughout the book can be subtle as well as slapstick happy. While in danger, Alexia rarely loses her head, and in fact, while a dastardly attacker is about to overtake her, Alexia thinks, “I do not want to die . . . I have not yet yelled at Lord Maccon for his most recent crass behavior!” Her sarcastic humor is lost on her dim-witted family. While at dinner her younger half-sisters grouse over the fact a science-club for men has opened next door to a fashionable woman in town. Alexia agrees with them, stating, “How ghastly for her. . . . People actually thinking, with their brains, and right next door. Oh, the travesty of it all.” The comment is completely ignored by the fashion-obsessed siblings. Other times she renders men—human and supernatural—useless by a swift thwack of her trusted parasol to their vulnerable nether regions.

The story is engaging, the plot is entertaining, the characters are interesting, and the writing is very good. Carriger is a less verbose Dickens, a less crass Wilde, and a less proper Austen.

The second installment of The Parasol Protectorate, Changeless, will provide further opportunity for Alexia Tarabotti to wow the supernaturals in her world and the readers in our own.