Soulless, my review

Soulless by Gail Carriger

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Set in an alternate Victorian England where supernatural creatures like vampires and werewolves have been part of society for centuries, Alexia Tarabotti has a few problems. She's a spinster who had the utter gall to have an Italian father. She inherited not only his complexion and a rather large nose but also his love for books.

Oh, and she was born without a soul. Which has one advantage, her touch negates a supernatural person's abilities

After accidentally killing a vampire while searching for some food at a simply terrible party, Alexia is swept up in a mystery involving missing vampires, unexpected vampires, the Bureau of Unnatural Registry, and its handsome but mercurial London chief, Lord Conall Maccon, who suffers from being both Scottish and a werewolf.

Can Alexia navigate the etiquette and politics of both human and vampire society? Will her family drive her insane? Who keeps trying to abduct her? And why oh why is Lord Maccon so darn attractive!

This was an immensely fun novel backed up by great research and some solid world-building. The plot moves along quickly, with Alexia as the primary POV character, but there are a few divergences. Half the fun is seeing the strict social rules of the Victorian Age applied to creatures who are technically immortal and the chaos that ensues when those mores fall to the wayside.

The ending is quite good and leaves me wanting to read the next novel.





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