Heartless is my first Gail Carriger book review that is not 100% percent positive.
The Book:
Title: Heartless
Author: Gail Carriger
Series: Parasol Protectorate
Published July 1st, 2011 by Orbit
Genre: Steampunk, Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 400
Synopsis: “Lady Alexia Maccon, soulless, is at it again, only this time the trouble is not her fault. When a mad ghost threatens the queen, Alexia is on the case, following a trail that leads her deep into her husband’s past. Top that off with a sister who has joined the suffragette movement (shocking!), Madame Lefoux’s latest mechanical invention, and a plague of zombie porcupines and Alexia barely has time to remember she happens to be eight months pregnant.
Will Alexia manage to determine who is trying to kill Queen Victoria before it is too late? Is it the vampires again or is there a traitor lurking about in wolf’s clothing? And what, exactly, has taken up residence in Lord Akeldama’s second best closet?” –Goodreads
My Heartless Review:
I hate to say it, but this is probably my least favorite Gail Carriger novel I have read. I love her still so dearly, but Heartless felt like a filler novel, something to pass the time between the next two novels.
Also, I am trying a new book review blog format. Let me know what you think about this in the comments below. I have been needing to change up how I do reviews since they are all getting a little hard to manage.
Heartless Plot: I hate to say anything necessarily negative in a review about Carriger, but the plots are all kind of blending together. Nothing substantial really came out of the plot of Heartless. Everything blurred together until the end. The ending was good, but it wasn’t phenomenal.
Heartless Characters: As usual, Alexia is witty and talented, but she is becoming quite a bit predictable. Does that mean I don’t love her? No. I still love the character, I just wish we got a bit more from her sometimes.
I wish Lord Maccon had a bigger role in the books. Sometimes he is there and sometimes he isn’t. I wish there was more of my favorite Scotsman.
All the other background characters make me laugh and they are oh-so-charming. I love them all. Madame Lefoux plays an interesting role in this book. We don’t see much of her, again I wish we had seen more.
Book’s Setting: I don’t think we leave London at all in this book. We don’t get introduced to many new places, so I do not have much to say about this.
Review of Romance: As I said in my review of Blameless, the romance is really dying out in this series. I think this one has less than Blameless. I don’t even want to label this as romance anymore.
Carriger’s Quality of Writing: Gail Carriger always writes well. Her writing style is so unique! She makes me laugh. She finds the best names, the best puns, and the best phrases.
What I Liked:
- The Wit
- The Unwavering Love between Alexia and Lord Maccon
What I Didn’t:
- That this plot is pretty much indistinguishable from the rest
- We never left London
- No real questions were answered about the stuff we learned from the last book
Rating:
Plot: 2
Characters: 4
Setting: 3
Quality of Writing: 5
Ease of Reading: 5
I hoped you like this review of Heartless by Gail Carriger. Let me know what you think of the format.
Read This If You Love/Need:
- Steampunk
- Werewolves/Vampires
- Victorian age
- Ridiculously easy-to-follow humor
- Something easy to follow along to
- Gail Carriger
As always, thanks for reading,
A Bookie
Star Rating: 3
