63. Soulless by Gail Carriger
Publication: Orbit (October 1, 2009), Paperback, 384pp / ISBN 0316056634
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Horror
Rating: 
Read: March 9-12, 2010
Source: Borrowed
Summary from Amazon:
Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.
Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire — and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.
With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?
SOULLESS is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London: full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.
Review
I borrowed this from a coworker who told me it was a historical fantasy mystery with steampunk and werewolves and vampires, and the vampires weren’t ninnies. You can see she knows my taste in books extremely well– probably because I complain to her whenever I have a problem with a book! I’m always telling her I want to see something different in fantasy books, not just the same old stuff rehashed and stuffed into a leather miniskirt. And Soulless turned out to be that book!
My coworker didn’t tell me Soulless was a paranormal romance, though, which was probably actually a good thing because I tend not to like most paranormal romances (humans with paranormal creatures just squick me, okay). However, the romance in this book was actually quite interesting and, well, romantic, and I really liked it! I think this is because Alexia is human but she’s got an edge over paranormal creatures, so it kind of…evens the odds? Something like that.
I really liked Alexia, because she kind of reminded me of Marian from The Woman in White, except she’s not actually ugly and only thinks she is because her family keeps telling her that. That’s horrible stuff, and I didn’t entirely understand why her own mother was so horrible to her, but then I often don’t understand when mothers hate their children. Anyway, Alexia is smart and brave and obviously restricted under the Victorian mores and morals of the time, and I can’t wait until she finally breaks free and starts actually doing investigative stuff. And I loved the other characters too, especially the werewolves. I never expected to like a werewolf, mainly because I’m so disinterested by them in general. But I liked them in Soulless!
The plot was really interesting, too. It’s sort of like in the Sookie Stackhouse books, when the vampires reveal themselves? Except in the Soulless world it’s vampires and werewolves, mainly, and I think they revealed themselves rather early on. I read somewhere that Ms Carriger created her world with the idea that the werewolves/vampires helped England become an empire and so on, and I find that idea really fascinating, as well. Plus there’s some steampunk stuff, although not as much as my coworker would have be believe, and it all seems to take a backseat to the romance bit, anyway. But still, really exciting stuff.
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