The Girl in the Steel Corset

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A while back I read Kady Cross's short story The Strange Case of Finley Jayne and I liked the way that it was written to be such a mysterious and female-centric tale inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, so I made the decision to purchase the first book in The Steampunk Chronicles series. With the prequel being my first real introduction to steampunk literature, I was excited to see where this book would take things. However, I was very aware while reading this that it had been written first, with the prequel being done as an afterthought, albeit a well-thought-out afterthought.
The Girl in the Steel Corset was far more YA than I was expecting. The characters felt less developed, and a little more archetypal, and certainly more childish than I was expecting. They just seemed like young teenagers with all the problems of people who don't yet have adult responsibilities. I have to admit that I prefer my young heroines to have a certain level of maturity that these characters often didn't seem to. Additionally, I was annoyed by the fact that the two lead females were both involved in love triangles. It was also pretty obvious which guy each was going to choose, which just made it more juvenile, I suppose. It also felt so different from the prequel in that the short story was all about female relationships and the women were all strong and independent. In this novel, though the girls were strong, their part in the story was dependent upon the men they had feelings for.
I was interested to learn about Finley's origin, but I think that it was a bit of a let-down, after all of the mystery and the Jekyll/Hyde parallel to hear that her father was the man who inspired said story. I think was hoping that she, herself, might be some kind of monster...which she was, but not in the way I expected.
The technology in this book also went a little too far, with motorbikes and cellphones, many powered not by steam but by a fictional bio-chemical material that felt more like fantasy than science-fiction. Also, the fact that this technology was so central to the plot only brought it to my attention more.
It was certainly an interesting read, but I really can't make myself read the rest of the series.

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