Words on The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross (Steampunk Chronicles #1)

Steampunk
Jan 28, 2015
2 min read

Finley Dayne was an ordinary girl until one fateful night, when she was attacked. The result was 1) getting fired and 2) finding out she had some seriously kick-ass powers. Finley soon learns that she has two sides. One, her normal side, is calm, kind, and reasonable. The other side is dark and violent, delighting in pain and fighting.

A terrified and confused Finley is taken in by Griffin King, a wealthy lord. Griffin has strange abilites as well, and he also houses Emily, a briliant mechanic, and Sam, a boy who is terrfied by the idea that he may be more metal than flesh and bone, and Jasper, a cowboy from America. As Finley learns to try and control her powers, the group must confront the Machinist, a man who has been using automatons to commit seemingly random crimes. But these crimes may have a darker purpose, and he may be working his way up to something. The group just has to find out what.

Finley is an intelligent and relatable heroine that you like almost instantly. Emily is firey and clever, and even though Sam is so bitter and angry about having a metal skeleton and all that, he is a good boy at heart. Finley also spends time with Jack Dandy, a crime lord who is both dangerous and strangely endearing. Jasper being a cowboy earns him points just like that, but his friendly personality and loyalty to Griffin won me over pretty darn fast.

I loved the idea of England with automatons and machines. It seems so contradictory to have complicated robots in nineteenth century England, but it blends well and adds to a interesting plot. Speaking of which, the plot was well-paced and the setting was great! If there was anything I didn't like, it's that the machine idea with evil machines thinking for themselves reminded me a bit too much of The Infernal Devices. (Great series by the way. It's by Cassie Clare.) 4/5 stars!