A review by nincrony1
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I’ll get this out of the way and say that Mortal Engines is one of my favourite series from that YA boom in the early 00s. If all you know about the series is via the uncooked and poor film adaptation, I beg readers to check out the original books; they are underrated, quite odd, surprisingly dark, emotionally involved, and wittily written. The world building is also excellent. With its succinct opening novel, Reeves manages to tell an adventurous story whilst also really exploring with some nuance and intelligence this daffy concept. Highly recommended and the rest of the series (with the exception of the third one) just improves upon the previous one.