A review by whisperfox
Changeless by Gail Carriger
3.0
[6/10]
As bridge books for series go, this one is not the worst one I've read. The story is quite well-crafted. It feels like it is less important in the grand scheme of where the series eventually goes, but it does provide a necessary plot device for those later books as well.
For some reason this one doesn't hold my attention as well as some of the others in the series. It's still very entertaining and funny, just a little less compelling for me. I think it may have something to do with how political this installment is.
I find myself waffling when I think about the writing in this one. I think this book marks a shift away from character-driven story into a more plot-driven narrative. It gives her more room to play with the tone of the narrator voice, which is hilarious, but plot-driven is simply not my natural preference. Also, I found the secondary romance plot in this one to be awkward and a little disingenuous, but that may be because Alexia's perspective is so powerful that I can't disconnect from it (and that's definitely what Alexia thinks of that whole affair).
The steampunk vibe ratchets up significantly with the introduction of Madame Lefoux, and this is for sure when the series jumps headlong into the everyone's-a-little-gay universe. Those things elevate it into really fun territory.
The ending here will be a controversial one -- for me, it makes me pick up the next one right away to get to a better conclusion. For others, it makes them so angry they stop reading the series forever and miss out on all the fun things that happen after you get through this little hiccough... looking at you, HeiHei.
As bridge books for series go, this one is not the worst one I've read. The story is quite well-crafted. It feels like it is less important in the grand scheme of where the series eventually goes, but it does provide a necessary plot device for those later books as well.
For some reason this one doesn't hold my attention as well as some of the others in the series. It's still very entertaining and funny, just a little less compelling for me. I think it may have something to do with how political this installment is.
I find myself waffling when I think about the writing in this one. I think this book marks a shift away from character-driven story into a more plot-driven narrative. It gives her more room to play with the tone of the narrator voice, which is hilarious, but plot-driven is simply not my natural preference. Also, I found the secondary romance plot in this one to be awkward and a little disingenuous, but that may be because Alexia's perspective is so powerful that I can't disconnect from it (and that's definitely what Alexia thinks of that whole affair).
The steampunk vibe ratchets up significantly with the introduction of Madame Lefoux, and this is for sure when the series jumps headlong into the everyone's-a-little-gay universe. Those things elevate it into really fun territory.
The ending here will be a controversial one -- for me, it makes me pick up the next one right away to get to a better conclusion. For others, it makes them so angry they stop reading the series forever and miss out on all the fun things that happen after you get through this little hiccough... looking at you, HeiHei.