judit93 's review for:

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

2.0

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I'm very conflicted. On the one hand, this is a brilliant story with an awesome steampunk backdrop. But then again, it's poorly written. Irritatingly so. The characters are mostly just names on the page that do things, sometimes rationally, but most often not. The only character with any resemblance of a personality is the octopus. The conversations are hard to follow because it's usually not clear who's ralking, and I repeatedly wondered if the author knows the connotational gravity of certain words because I sure as hell wouldn't call someone a "xenophobic gnome" and then laugh it off as a joke. And I doubt the other would take it as such.

Not to mention the ending.

I really, really, honsetly hoped against all odds that Grace would turn out to be a terrorist. There was a perfect leading up to it with her science background. The best part of the book was her account of trying to escape Mori and then constructing the bomb at the back of the shop. And all that for what? I can't even fathom the reasons. She should have been an undercover Irish nationalist, what with the family background and all. All that hassle just to make Thaniel realize what a threat Mori is is a gaping missed opportunity and I'm angry about it. I should probably take back the "brilliant story" statement.

The one satisfaction I got from this book is that I wasn't queerbaited.