Hi readers,
Today I'm looking at the sequel to the Parasol series. This follows Alexia and Conall's daughter, Rue, as she sets off to have adventures on her own. Well, sort of, she brings some friends along too! I was excited to see how Carriger would write this story and the contrasts to the first series.
My first in impression is that it's really good. It stays in the same vein as before with the focus being on the supernatural and adventure theme with the steampunk being in the background, though it does feel a little more developed here. Also, there's only a small bit of romance as none of the characters have got together yet. I don't made this though as it means there's lots of time for things to happen between the characters.
The plot of the novel is that Rue, now a young lady, has been giving a quest to travel to India to investigate a new kind of tea by her adapted vampire father. She's given a state of the art airship, which she names The Spotted Custard, and most of her crew. Rue then recruits her best friend Primrose and her twin brother Percy - Alexia's best friend Ivy's twins- as well as Qusenel, Madam Lefoux's adopted son. Bring all the next generation from the Parasol books together!
They then travel to India, making some new friends along the way and once there - including a lioness and some monkeys. All isn't as it seems though and soon Rue is dragged into a problem that is a lot more deeper the missing tea leaves. I won't give anything else away, but the ending is happy and solved enough for my liking.
All the characters work well together and they do develop as the pages turn. Rue does remind me of her parents a lot though and I love one of the scenes were she turns into a werewolf and ends up running through London in bloomers! That image is going to stay with me a long time. I also like her airship being painted like a ladybug and her quick thinking. The other character don't seem to sit on the side though as they all seemed very detailed and come across as them being the main characters. I like all the different friendships too and there wasn't a character that really bugged me.
I have like three issues overall though. The first is that I felt this book was longer then any of the first series. The chapters felt long and sometimes I found them too broken up for my own liking. The second is that this book does have it's dippy moments. Unlike, the first book of The Parasol series which felt like a run with one thing after another, the same style is a bit less in this book and I don't think it works well. There were a few moments were I got bored because of this, but that just made me want to push on. The third thing is that there's more terminology used, especially to do with the airship and my dyslexic brain didn't understand, though I always felt like I knew what was going on though.
Overall, I did actually enjoy reading this novel. I don't think you need to have read any other books by Carriger, though of course having that background of everyone's parents etc is useful knowledge, but with all the focus being on Rue and her friends, anyone could pick it up. It's a nice introduction to anyone interested in steampunk and alternate history too. I'm looking forward to the second book now! But I won't get it read for next Monday's review as it's Amazon says it's not arriving till the Thursday after! I might not post anything then so that they follow on from each other. Going to have to see.
Thanks for reading.
Image from; Amazon UK.
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