Review: Soulless

Soulless by Gail Carriger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My friend is a huge Gail Carriger fan and through the sharing of books, I have been welcomed into the wonderful Carriger steampunk world. Even before my friend let me borrow her Gail Carriger books, Soulless was sitting on my to-read list. I enjoy steampunk stories, yet I have read a shockingly low number. With Gail Carriger being such a big name in the genre, I knew I needed to read her work.

My introduction into the Parasol world actually came through the Finishing School series. Chronologically it takes place before Soulless, even though it was Soulless released prior. Reading them chronologically is perfectly fine, if anything reading the Finishing School series made me even more excited to jump into the Parasol Protectorate series. The Finishing School series was a lot of fun, and I was promised even greater things with the Parasol Protectorate series.

I’ll be honest and say it took me a while to be pulled into Soulless. You can tell this book was written earlier in Gail Carriger’s writing career. It is not a bad book, not at all, it simply has a different feel to it. Like a lot of authors, Gail Carriger’s books seem to get stronger with each new release, and this book is proof of that. It’s a great read, but it doesn’t quite pack the same punch as some of her later books. Despite this, it is a great read.

It is hard to pinpoint what it was that made it a bit more difficult to get into this book, but even harder is to pinpoint the moment where I slipped into the realm of addiction. I was ambling along just fine and then I was lost – I was sucked in and nothing could pull me away from the book. I complained when people wanted attention from me, I ignored requests, and I allowed the book to become my world. I was lost. Completely and utterly addicted.

This book has so much to it. The characters are a lot of fun (there are so many great characters throughout, both main and side characters you will love). The world building is wonderful (it has all you expect from a steampunk world, the supernatural and the science mixing wonderfully in an alternate history). The mystery is engaging (I would never place this book into the mystery genre, but there is an undercurrent throughout that will keep you interested in how the events will come together). The emotions run rampant (I honestly chuckled so many times, the laugher booming out of me, even in moments of dire stress where I was on the verge of speed reading to make sure things played out well). The entire thing comes together so well.

Without a doubt, Soulless is a great start to the Parasol Protectorate series. As soon as I finished I jumped straight into Changeless, needing more of the world and characters I came to love so much.

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