Tuesday, May 03, 2011

THE GIRL IN THE STEEL CORSET


The Girl in the Steel Corset, by Kady Cross, is a book set in late 19th century England. Finley Jayne is sure that there is something wrong with her. Whenever she feels threatened, the thing inside her comes out and makes her more powerful and strong than the average man.  She has lost too many jobs due to her strange power, and she is tired of always running away. But after a chance encounter with Griffin King, Duke of Greythorne, she begins to learn more about the thing inside her. At his immense home, she meets others with strange gifts like hers, and she begins to see for the first time that her curse may not be such a bad thing.
I thought this was a very good book. The plot was interesting and kept me turning the pages. I couldn’t wait to see what would happen to the characters next. I quickly grew attached to them, and throughout the entire story, I was holding my breath in anticipation of what was to come. I couldn’t help but love Finley and the whole gang of misfits. I really like the style the story was written in, third person with a shifting focus on each of the characters. It made the plot that much more interesting, and the characters that much more lovable and real, being able to see them from multiple angles. Kady Cross uses words that are very descriptive and this helps me to imagine the streets of London in the steampunk era she has created.  The beginning of the book was a bit slow, and at times the ideas presented in the book were difficult to understand. Once I got into the book and got used to the strange inventions created within the pages, it was hard to stop reading. This was my first book of the steampunk genre. It took a bit of getting used to, imagining the nineteenth century world with modern-day gadgets. Cross did a wonderful job of explaining how those gadgets worked, and she made the world seem very believable.

Reviewer Age:15
Reviewer City, State and Country: Otsego, MN USA