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missbryden 's review for:
Etiquette & Espionage
by Gail Carriger
Class I'd want to take: Sister Mattie's. Favorite characters: Dimity, Agatha, Sidheag, Soap (definitely "Team Soap").
This is another book or series where I don't really "get"/connect to the main character. I think her constant climbing about on the outside of the ship is a bit nonsensical - but then I'm not a big adventure reader/watcher, and yet I like and reread these series.
I get a little annoyed with all the focus on the highest echelons of society - the other girls' surprise at Sidheag for dressing like a governess or housekeeper (but she's allowed to be eccentric because she's a Lady) and pitying those who don't have the very latest fashion - but I expect it's easier and more fun to be able to describe the finest dresses that survived history (and I do appreciate when an existing garment, etc, is described and can be found in museum collections). Also, the nice girls vs. the mean girls, and yet the nice girls talk or feel pretty disparagingly about those who are awkward, and talk behind their backs. It may be a teen girl/young adult novel thing, of which I don't read many (and have long since not been the target audience - but then I would always have been that awkward one, too).
Uncomfortable/don't like: how Soap is introduced, described, named. Now, I didn't see it the first time(s) I read the book, not until I saw a random comment on GC's racism, and now it does feel like a distant, but overdone attempt at addressing a black character in a world where he's rare. Maybe Sophronia, not having gone beyond the wealthy, rural world of her family and neighbors, had never seen a black person, and that they were figures almost of fantasy - and on first reading I thought Soap's joke about being from "darkest Africa...No, miss. Tooting Bec, South London." was at sheltered Sophronia's expense, and funny. I still think it is a bit, but also his name, nickname, and discussion of his color is overdone, especially for an "enlightened" 21st century book. As others have said when you're definitely a sci fi/fantasy with steampunk and immortals, do you have to be so "realistic" about a (isolated) black character, that the writing sounds like it might be from 19th or early 20th century?
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This is another book or series where I don't really "get"/connect to the main character. I think her constant climbing about on the outside of the ship is a bit nonsensical - but then I'm not a big adventure reader/watcher, and yet I like and reread these series.
I get a little annoyed with all the focus on the highest echelons of society - the other girls' surprise at Sidheag for dressing like a governess or housekeeper (but she's allowed to be eccentric because she's a Lady) and pitying those who don't have the very latest fashion - but I expect it's easier and more fun to be able to describe the finest dresses that survived history (and I do appreciate when an existing garment, etc, is described and can be found in museum collections). Also, the nice girls vs. the mean girls, and yet the nice girls talk or feel pretty disparagingly about those who are awkward, and talk behind their backs. It may be a teen girl/young adult novel thing, of which I don't read many (and have long since not been the target audience - but then I would always have been that awkward one, too).
Uncomfortable/don't like: how Soap is introduced, described, named. Now, I didn't see it the first time(s) I read the book, not until I saw a random comment on GC's racism, and now it does feel like a distant, but overdone attempt at addressing a black character in a world where he's rare. Maybe Sophronia, not having gone beyond the wealthy, rural world of her family and neighbors, had never seen a black person, and that they were figures almost of fantasy - and on first reading I thought Soap's joke about being from "darkest Africa...No, miss. Tooting Bec, South London." was at sheltered Sophronia's expense, and funny. I still think it is a bit, but also his name, nickname, and discussion of his color is overdone, especially for an "enlightened" 21st century book. As others have said when you're definitely a sci fi/fantasy with steampunk and immortals, do you have to be so "realistic" about a (isolated) black character, that the writing sounds like it might be from 19th or early 20th century?
my Pinterest board of references