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About the Author

Gail Carriger began writing in order to cope with being raised in obscurity by an expatriate Brit and an incurable curmudgeon. She escaped small town life and inadvertently acquired several degrees in Higher Learning.

Reviews

. . . cleverly Victorian methods of espionage, witty banter, lighthearted silliness, and a ship full of intriguingly quirky people.
*Booklist, starred review*

This genre-blender will introduce fans of Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls and Jennifer Lynn Barnes The Squad to a world of mechanical maids and flying machines, while bringing a spy-school romp to readers of the weightier worlds of Cassandra Clare and Scott Westerfeld.
*Kirkus, starred review*

Carriger deploys laugh-out-loud bon mots on nearly every page . . . in a sparkling start to the Finishing School series.
*Publishers Weekly, starred review*

Readers will love the well-developed characters and the quirky charm imbued into every page, and will eagerly await the sequel!
*Romantic Times*

Gr 6-9-Sophronia is far from the proper Victorian young lady she is expected to be. She would rather climb, take apart machinery, and cause a general ruckus than sit for tea and crumpets, making her a blight on her mother's reputation. She is enrolled in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality to learn proper decorum. But she soon discovers that its students are learning more than a proper curtsy. The school is a floating airship charged with teaching the skills of espionage. Sophronia is an early savant of sorts and quickly learns to use her skills to help thwart a fellow student in an attempt to steal a prototype essential to communications. The author touches on themes of gender identity and racial and social equality, though they are not developed thoroughly enough to either add to or distract from the story. Carriger's leading lady is a strong, independent role model for female readers. There is still more to be learned about the relationships of other characters who are integral to the story, perhaps in a sequel. Ladies and gentlemen of propriety are combined with dirigibles, robots, werewolves, and vampires, making this story a steampunk mystery and an adventure mash-up that is sure to intrigue readers who can get past the language of the time period.-Betsy Davidson, Cortland Free Library, NY (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

. . . cleverly Victorian methods of espionage, witty banter, lighthearted silliness, and a ship full of intriguingly quirky people. * Booklist, starred review *
This genre-blender will introduce fans of Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls and Jennifer Lynn Barnes The Squad to a world of mechanical maids and flying machines, while bringing a spy-school romp to readers of the weightier worlds of Cassandra Clare and Scott Westerfeld. * Kirkus, starred review *
Carriger deploys laugh-out-loud bon mots on nearly every page . . . in a sparkling start to the Finishing School series. * Publishers Weekly, starred review *
Readers will love the well-developed characters and the quirky charm imbued into every page, and will eagerly await the sequel! * Romantic Times *