Source/Format: Won (Appraising Pages, blog, thank you.), Bound ARC
Age range: YA
Publisher/Publication Date: Dial, December 6, 2012
My thoughts:
My thoughts:
The Friday Society is a whimsical, wonderful, and quirky novel full of steampunk fun—gadgets and scientific references included. I loved all of the neat ideas incorporated into the book, which really made it work for me. Steampunk is a vast genre and there are so many different things you can do with it. Kress did a fantastic job of weaving the Steampunk elements into the story.
The
characters were lively, brilliant, and I enjoyed reading their story. Each of the girls came from slightly similar
circumstances as children, but where they ended up was completely
different. There was a dynamic to it
that really fit with the story and kept it going. I liked seeing the different backgrounds that
Nellie, Cora, and Michiko came from. The
characters were well thought-out, and were in no way generic. Out of all of the characters, Michiko, and
the magician’s bird, Scheherazade, were my favorite. At some points I was laughing out loud at Scheherazade’s
antics.
The plot
was great, and I was really in the dark until the end. There were so many pieces to the puzzle that
you wouldn’t think fit together, but they do.
The beginning was a little slow, and some of it got a little repetitive
and seemed to drag a bit, but that didn’t take away from the overall greatness
of the book. The action really picked up
towards the center and kept on going. The
surprise at the end—whoa—the culprit was someone I didn’t even notice, and the
conclusion was satisfying. There were also a few funny moments, but I won’t tell, because that would be too much of a spoiler. If you want to know, go buy The Friday Society. I recommend
it to anyone who enjoys the Steampunk genre.