Etiquette & Espionage
Ratings76
Average rating3.8
Gail Carriger is back!
The Finishing School series is set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, only 20 years earlier. We follow 14-year-old Sophronia Temminnick (don't you love that name?) through her first year at Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing School, where she learns to finish... everything.
I adored the writing, Gail's quick wit and humor are fantastic, the characters are lovable and get themselves into exceedingly ridiculous situations. There are new gimmicks and old friends, there are mechanimals and eyelash fluttering classes. Whether you know Gail Carriger's writing or not, pick this up. It's a lot of fun.
My full review can be found at SFF Book Review.
this is a great addition to the parasol protectorate series. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
A laugh-out-loud funny, yet really quite gripping story of a young Victorian lady who is sent to finishing school to stop her from being a tomboy. Unfortunately for her mother this turns out to be the wrong sort of “finishing” - it's a school for young spies and assassins. Of course a mystery is stumbled across and much adventure is had by all.
Best enjoyed with a nice pot of tea.
I adored this book, thank you Lady Carriger! You are a lady and scholar!
I really enjoyed this one. Sophronia is an interesting character. I love the humour as always.
A quick and fun fantasy-steampunk read. A little light-weight perhaps and some of the characters require serious suspension of disbelief. But hey, who doesn't like oddball schools, airships, steam-driven robots, werewolves, vampires, conspiracies, and lots of action.
3.2 stars.
Pros: fun, quirky characters, quick moving plot, historical tidbits added, good inclusion of a dark skinned supporting cast member that kept to historical conventions without being racist
Cons: the ending is too sudden (and too soon!)
For Parents: minor violence
Sophronia's antics have given cause for her to be sent to a finishing school. But what her proper mother doesn't realize is that Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy teaches more than just which spoon to use for soup. It also teaches skills in espionage. And Sophronia's first lesson comes when the carriage she and two fellow students are taking to the school is attacked by flywaymen looking for a prototype in the possession of one of the passengers...
The book is a fun romp, with quirky characters and a quick plot. The school is located in an unusual place that makes for a wonderful setting and the mischief Sophronia and her classmates get into trying to figure out what the prototype is and where it's been hidden, is great.
I was a bit concerned by the opening as Sophronia is VERY over the top, but the plot quickly requires it and she never got on my nerves. Nor did any of the other quirky characters.
It was impressive how the author added Phineas B. Crow, aka Soap, to the cast. Sophronia knows it's improper for her to associate with someone of a lower class - and a boy to boot, but she doesn't care about that, or the dark colour of his skin. She's simply curious about him and the world at large.
The ending came too suddenly, and much too soon, for me. I can't wait to see what other adventures Sophronia and her friends get up to.
listened to this with my 9-year-old while driving. We laughed a lot and really enjoyed it. when we finished I immediately bought the next in the series and we jumped right in.
Not as great as the Parasol Protectorate series, but still a fairly fun read.
This was a playful book that had a few rocky parts but built on the world previously built in the Parasol Protectorate Series. So, if you want to visit this world again, this will be satisfying. And a good preamble to Finishing School #2 which I found much better.
How was this book so good?
Okay, this was another read outside my wheelhouse on purpose. Come on? A 19th century steampunk story about a group of girls shipped off to boarding school to (auspiciously) perfect their manners and fashion sense. When, in fact, they are learning deception, assassination, theft, poison, etc. . . how could this be bad?! Well, it wasn't. It was wicked good fun.
The principle character is a 14-year-old girl with more to offer than even she knows. The setting and plot were entirely age appropriate. The fact that it's set in the late 1800's only adds to the skillful layer of censorship the author achieves for the audience. The most offensive term I heard was “cleavage” and it was only used once or twice. Typically, the euphamism of choice was “decolletage.” That lind of thing happened all the time and was totally impressive.
I would recommend this widely. Especially to the YA/Pre-teen female reader who wants a classy, fun, and strong female lead experience.
This young adult steampunk is silly, clever and overall just a lot of fun. If you appreciate Victorian manners, fisticuffs, mechanical sausage dogs and an evil genius training school with levels including “discourteous” and “spiteful” this is the series for you.
El steampunk me da mala espina, especialmente si el protagonista es una mujer. Me ha pasado de quemarme con romances JA pero con engranajes pegados encima. Cuando vi que este libro también tenía vampiros y hombres lobos pensé que iba a ser triángulo amoroso con engranajes pegados encima. Por suerte fui gratamente sorprendida.
En Etiqueta y Espionaje seguimos a Sophronia, una niña de 14 años (la primer pista de que no iba a ser un romance) de una familia de clase alta que es obligada a ir a una escuela para señoritas. Lo que ni ella ni la madre saben, es que en esa escuela no entrenan sólo en cuestiones de etiqueta sino también en espionaje (de ahí el nombre del libro) Los elementos de steampunk están muy bien emparejados en la construcción del mundo, los personajes tienen un buen desarrollo a lo largo del libro y la trama es autoconclusiva pero con suficientes enganches para seguir leyendo los siguientes. Le doy 3.5/5 porque estuvo bien, pero no me voló la cabeza.