Monday, March 26, 2012

The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross

Despite reading about the genre, I've never actually read a steampunk novel. Until now that is. I picked up The Girl in the Clockwork Collar not knowing that it was the second in a series, but after reading it, I must admit that this is a genre I should try to read more often.

The Girl in the Clockwork Collar follows Finley and her friends as they travel from England to America to help their friend - Jasper. Jasper, on the other hand, is being forced into helping the villian Dalton as his love Mei Xing has a clockwork collar on her neck that threatens her life.

Despite not knowing the characters or their history, I found the story a really good clean read. From the book, I knew enough about most of the characters that I could read the story without being confused. The characters were well-written, and I enjoyed the fact that the author had the characters come from a different countries and social classes, which resulted in different characters and speaking styles.

Although there is some violence in the story, e.g. Finley is repeatedly described as very strong and she does snap a man's wrist at one point, it is not graphic. Likewise is the romance angle. The romance between the different pairs were very sweet and there was nothing explicit at all.
However, the aether does give me some course for concern. Even though it's described as a form of energy, it's also mentioned that the energy ghosts have is the same type. In addition, it's mentioned that only organic matter (i.e. humans) can manipulate large amounts of it. But on the whole, it's treated simply as another invention or tool to be used.

The only thing that annoys me was how people pronounced Mei Xing's name. She's Chinese, but it's mentioned several times that it's sounds like a-MAZING. Of all the possible ways to pronounce her name, I would not have likened it to that sound, particularly the "Zing" part. But that is just me being nitpicky.

In conclusion, this is a really enjoyable read. I'd like to read the first book and more of the steampunk genre.

Disclaimer: I got this book from NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review

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