I'm not claiming to be an expert in books ( although I read a tremendous amount) or English Literature, so don't take my opinions or critiques too seriously. This is just a quick little post about how I feel about this book.
The book I'm talking about is called "Etiquette and Espionage" by Gail Carriger. This book is the start to a series called "Finishing School" and I can only assume that there will be the same amount of books as there are years of this finishing school. I have not yet finished this book and got about half way before I could continue, I do plan on it at some point but not now and I'll talk about my reasons why later. I picked this book up in The Works so I could buy some others in a sale, but when I read the back I was more excited for this one. The blurb is below but my copy of the book had a miniature version of this.
"It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.
Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners—and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.
But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage—in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education."
I didn't realise this was a prequel series to the authors adult series "Alexia Tarabotti" or "Parasol Protectorate" ( the series was renamed) and that the heroine was 14.
Now I'm happy to read from the perspective of children, teenager and young adults it's just that I started reading the book thinking that person who's perspective was a either an 8 year old with a sleight sense of maturity or an 11-12 year old who was acting a bit childish. I then realised she was actually 14. This surprised me because the advanced words and descriptions used mixed with the character's very childlike view on the word was uncomfortable to read, you were never sure of the intelligence level of character. I have a 14 year old sister and It wasn't too long ago I was 14 myself, and there was never anyone that age who acted and thought like Sophronia. So that is my main issue with this book, I can't sympathise with the character because it's such an awkward mix of a children's book and a young adult/ adult book that she's too unrealistic and since it's form her point of view puts a bit of a damper on everything else about the book.
The second issue I have is the pace. So much happens at the very start and it just feels like too much. First time readers of this world are barely able to process what the world is like before being thrown into a chase where you're constantly having to go back and re-read to understand where everything is, who's doing what, what this is and it's too much.
Another thing surprised me was the supernatural element. There was no mention of it on the back and I was a couple of pages in when BANG the word vampire is mentioned with no explanation. It just came as a bit of a shock.
I understand that this was the authors first attempt at writing for younger audiences and since I loved the idea of the steampunk word and a spy school so I will read the "Alexia" series first and hopefully that will encourage me to get through the "Finishing" series.
So yeah, I wouldn't call this a review but one day I will get round to doing a real but until then, that was the book I've been reading
Bye
Rainiepie
*edit* I'm aware that part of this post has the background white and I have not idea how to fix it sorry, if anyone knows, please comment or message me :)
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