Friday Fun With... Mary Evelyn

Friday Fun is where readers from ages 5 to 16 let us know what they are reading and why they loved (or hated) what they read. 

Today we have Mary Evelyn reviewing :

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger 

It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.  Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners—and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.  But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage—in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.

Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail Carriger's legions of fans have come to adore.

Review by Mary Evelyn

Why did you pick this book out?

It is partly steampunk inspired and based on “older” more sophisticated times (my guess is the 17-1800’s); if you didn’t pick up this book and want to have your own “Bumbersnoot”, then you must be lunatic!!!! Steampunk itself is impressive and amazing (and impressively amazing) ;it takes skill to make some of the delicate details.

Characters:

Who was your favorite character? Why?

It’s hard to say. I’m torn between the wonderful and mischievous Sophronia and the caring and helpful “Soap”. They’re both lovable and humorous.

Sophronia is adventurous and loves to dissect things like I. I’m always getting into trouble for things (like not being ladylike), but sometimes I can get away with it just like Sophronia.

“Soap” is a hard working, caring, and modest young man. He knows how to treat a lady. He works as a “sooty” in the bottom of

Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality’s

Blimp. Mr. Soap (as Sophronia calls him) is seemingly strong because he shovels coal into the boiler.

If I absolutely had to choose, I’d most likely choose Sophronia.

  

Who is your least favorite character ? Why?

Monique Pelouse. She’s

1.   A snob

2.   A pain in the “royal sitter” (I was trying to use more “appropriate” words)

3.   “Better than you” (or like in #1, a snob)

She’s just one of those people/characters that you instantly want to harshly eliminate.

Overall Thoughts:

What did you like about this book?

Everything. I don’t think that there was much I did not like.

What did you not like about this book? 

Either I missed something, or Ms. Carringer did not mention what time period the story takes place in.

Would you tell other people to read this book?

If they are interested in steampunk and finishing schools, then yes. Even if they are not, my answer is still yes.

Book Rating (circle a #):       1       2       3       4       5

1 being horrible, 5 being fantastic

Happy Reading!

Cana