It’s been ages since I’ve read any paranormal stuff, but when I saw the cover of Changeless by Gail Carriger I was drawn to read the back cover, and, as I mentioned, when I saw what was written on the back I simply had to buy it, even though it was the second in a series, even though it was about werewolves (which I really have nothing against, but rarely read), even though I hadn’t bought a book in over a year. (By the way, that purchase initiated a shameful amount of time and money spent in bookstores over the past few weeks, both physical and online. Oops.)
I can’t promise much by way of review here because I just flew through the book, mostly while having after-shift beers one night at work. So, I guess in addition to initiating my book spending spree, I can also blame Changeless for hindering my progress in getting to know my new coworkers. Every time one of them would stop by the bar and say hi, I’d make the bare minimum of smalltalk, just itching to get back to reading. She has a parasol that shoots darts, for goodness sake!
The Story
Alexia Maccon, the Lady Woolsey, is a preternatural. If she touches creatures like vampires and werewolves they turn human. She’s married to a large and lusty Scottish werewolf lord, and spends her time advising Queen Victoria on matters of the supernatural. When her husband leaves for Scotland, Alexia sets off after him, armed with her trusty parasol and plagued by a pair of Victorian ladies, in the company of the mysterious but sexy cross-dressing French inventor Madame Lefoux.
This book is full of lovable and strongly drawn characters with quick wits and good conversation. Add a good dose of humor, manners, and steampunk, and you’ll understand why I’m gushing.
Carriger has a lovely way with words, and a knack for verbing nouns that makes her prose, I don’t know, sparkle and skitter across the page like an adorable baby bunny, um, covered in glitter. It just makes you want to smile, is what I’m saying.
“Have a little nip of this, my dear,” [said sexy cross-dressing French inventor Madame Lefoux], “Calm your nerves.” She handed [the flask] to Ivy.
Ivy nipped, blinked a couple times, nipped again, and then graduated from frantic to loopy. “Why that burns all the way down!”
Although this was the second book in the series, it stood on its own just fine for me. Carriger managed to write a story that was self-contained without either a) over-explaining what happened in the first book for those of us who completely ignore proper order or b) making the book read incomprehensibly. I feel like I can read the first book without really any spoilers, and I can’t wait to do it. Next paycheck.
The only thing was, I can’t believe that Alexia didn’t get that Madame Lefoux was a lesbian even though Lefoux breathed it out of every pore, as well as making thinly-veiled allusions to her sexual preferences in every other conversation. Especially since Alexia is friends with the celebratedly gay vampire Lord Akeldama (another fantastic and delightful character who I can’t wait to read more about in books 1 and 3.).
Read this book now!