With summer just around the corner, I wanted to start mine off right. I wanted something fun, something witty, something that would make me relax in a world of finals.
And for that, I went to “Soulless” by Gail Carriger.
“Soulless” follows the tale of Miss Alexia Tarabotti, a spinster who lacks a soul. After being attacked by a vampire in a library — quite rude! — Alexia sets off to discover just what the hell is going on in London.
She runs into a large and rather attractive werewolf after murdering a vampire who tried to attack her. Lord Maccon, Alpha wolf of the local werewolf pack, acts as an investigator. Though he wants Alexia to stay away from his investigation, Queen Victoria has other plans for the soulless Alexia and demands she be involved.
Alexia’s always up for a bit of adventure. This particular one involves new vampires appearing, friendly vampires disappearing and using her parasol as a very handy weapon.
This is, without a doubt, one of my favorite novels of all time. There is nothing about this story that I dislike. The world Carriger builds is fabulous and so much fun to read about. Who wouldn’t love an alternate paranormal steam-punk London?
But, I can’t decide if my favorite part is the humor or the characters. To be fair, they may be too interconnected to tell.
Even with the villainous characters, there’s not a single character in “Soulless” that I dislike. Everybody — and I mean everybody — is fleshed out. It’s quirky and funny and I absolutely adore it. Alexia herself may be one of my top three favorite female characters of all time. Her tendency to beat things with her parasol, her indifference to the frivolous tendencies of her sisters, her love of
adventure; I love it.
And we could talk about how sexy Lord Maccon is — the only fictional werewolf I have ever deemed attractive in any way, I might add — but that would take away some of the reading pleasure for yourself.
Now, I don’t want to make it sound like “Soulless” is a piece of paranormal chick lit. It’s not. Trust me, there’s enough battle scenes and mystery to keep even the most hard-hearted of men interested.
“Soulless” is most definitely a great way to kick off summer reading, whether you love paranormal or not.