Soulless
Ratings214
Average rating3.8
Charlene Harris meets Regency Romance meets steam-punk, which sounds atrocious, but was quite nicely handled and simply loads of fun.
A very fun and funny little book that got surprisingly spicy in sections. Although characters made a few dumb choices and missed obvious connections along the way I'd still give it 5 stars.
Great recommendation from my book club. Enjoyed the story, the setting and steampunk tie in. Alexia is wonderful character, and I look forward to more of her exploits.
DNF at 23%, couldn't get into it at the moment (nothing wrong with it but the writing is too delicate for me). No rating.
Negative points, in order of importance
- British Victorian era setting AND dialogue
- excessively detailed characters
- 10% in and no plot is established
- protagonist is an anachronism to her era, a thinking woman that doesn't want to get marry
- protagonist is constantly annoyed by how high society treats her for being a ~25 years old spinster
- protagonist is not pretty, but the her love interest is a sophisticated and that doesn't care for appearances
SUMMARY
Alexia is a soulless, a person with no soul. She is called a preternatural, in contrast with the other supernatural creatures that are a common occurrence in this fantasy Victorian era England.
While attending a bowl, she is attacked by a vampire, who should know better then to mess with a soulless like her. Her preternatural status gives her super powers, at least against other supernatural creatures, and so she dispatches him.
Lord Maccon is part of an organization that policies and investigates supernatural related activity. He is a werewolf himself, and when he shows up he chastises for her recklessness, because killing a vampire is still considered a murder.
He believes its not her fault becouse he knows her, and so lets her go.
Read 1:04 / 9:44 10%
This is werewolves and vampires done right. Loved it and couldn't put it down.
Much fluffy, entirely captivating, a paranormal romance steampunkish romp. #bookclub4m
Well everyone who said this was delightful 10 years ago — they were right! So excited to to have all the Carriger series to catch up on now!
Miss Alexia Tarabotti is a spinster, Italian, and, she has no soul. She is also very strong-willed and vocal. As if that's not enough, she is attacked by a vampire at a party! Carrying her trusty parasol, she fights back and wins, killing the vampire. This of course catches the attention of BUR (Bureau of Unnatural Registry). The investigation is led by the most infuriating werewolf Alexia has ever met. Can things get any worse? Of course they can! I loved this book! The characters are great, the story is great, and I loved the humor.
Such a wonderful book, I was immediately captivated with style of writing, loquacious, eloquent and no slang, even cussing was a joy to read......
The 1800's, Victorian London, as science emerges, ensconced within the British citizenry is their supernatural counterpart, vampires and werewolves live in palatial residences, no skulking to find human victims.......
In comes our heroine, Alexia Tarabotti, the last known preternatural(a person that negates the supernatural ability by simply touching them, but removing her touch, brings them back to their supernatural state), who helps solve a mystery plaguing it's supernatural community.
Action, adventure, comedy.........and S E X, this book is a teaser, and what a way to tease, think of it as Sean Connery, in an R-18 movie!!!!
Re-read July ‘17 dropping rating from 4 –> 3.5
Never got around to finishing this... omg last year? around the same time too, wow. Anyhow, I'm determined this year to read the rest of the series and have it done with once and for all.
The reason I think I can never continue with the series?
It is interesting and holds my attention when I read it, but I don't feel gripped or compelled to read the rest. Hopefully the second book will change my mind about this. I WILL START IT!
7/27/16 read the book again.... raise the rating from 3 -> 4*
I'm not sure what I found lacking the first time I read this book. I found it absolutely enchanting and funny. The dialogue is charming. I found myself laughing or wanting to highlight passages
I liked the characters and honestly I can't wait to read the next book to figure out how the story will continue. Such a fun world!!
Things I didn't like were how Alexia's family put her down continuously, making her self-esteem horrible. Given the time period it is supposed to be though I cannot fault it too much. I hope to see some improvement on this in future books.
A tribute to the paranormal, steampunk, and romance genres. All of Jane Austen's hilarity and flare with an extra helping of dirty jokes. I loved this much more than I expected to!
Oh my goodness! This book is just so fabulous. Romance, fantasy, science fiction, a smidge of mystery! There some typical tropes of a romance novel and some evil scientists. I suppose that could detract from some people's enjoyment. For me, I don't think it did. The characters are just so wonderful that I wanted to spend more time with them. I am glad that they resolved the romantic issue in one book instead of dragging it out. There are other fish to fry in the further novels. I appreciate that aspect of the writing.
This was such an entertaining book. While it took a bit for me to fall in love with the characters and the world, once it did I was hooked and loved every second. Since this is the first book in the series, there is a lot of character development and world development. I think the plot was a little thin in terms of excitement and a true mystery to be solved. However, I loved the relationships that we saw and how they changed, especially with Alexia and Lord Maccon.
I cannot wait to start the next book and see what the pair get up to next. This book was definitely full of supernatural, witty humor and amazing characters.
Awesome graphic novel.
I tried to read Soulless a few times in the past and didn't get engaged in the story (probably due to the fact that I tried to read it in french which is my second fluent language). This week I found the graphic novel in my local library and took all three novels with me (and read the first one in one sitting). The graphics were gorgeous and detailed and, for what I have read in Soulless so far, similar to the book itself.
I will continue to read the next two books in graphic novel form before I try reading the complete series in german and - if the german version also turns out to be not as suiting for my reading taste - in english.
Generally described as “steampunk”, but with not a lot of steam and no trace of the punk, this is set in an alternate Victorian Britain that has accepted vampires and werewolves into society. Sort of a mid-Victorian True Blood, only with a lot more humour.
The tone is breezy and fun, and the heroine impresses as a rebellious woman who is nonetheless clearly a product of her time and social station. The story is by no means a comedy, although it has its comedic moments, and a great sense of fun, even where some of the characters are sinister or evil.
It's hardly what you'd call “deep”, although it's well written and makes a nice break between more serious novels. The only other Gail Carriger book I've read is the first of her Finishing School series - unlike that, this is decidedly not Young Adult, with much less of the weird tech, rather more of the dark elements, and a romance plot that concludes with a steamy epilogue.
★ ★ ★ 1/2
This is simply not my kind of book, a fact I repeated to myself many times while reading this. But man, I was charmed by it. So charmed by it, that I didn't care if it was my kind of book or not.
Straightaway, we have our heroine, Alexia Tarabotti, describing her mother:
Mrs. Loontwill, as she was Loontwill since her remarriage, leaned a little too far toward the frivolous in any given equation. She was prone to wearing yellow and engaging in bouts of hysteria.
It took me a little while to warm to this, but it was overall an absolutely delightful read. Interesting characters in an interesting setting, and a steampunk story that managed to feel authentically Victorian in a way that few of them (in my experience) do.
One of my favorite things is when a book that seems to be loved by readers I respect lives up to the hype. This was definitely one of those novels, and I had so much fun reading it. Alexia is a fantastic heroine - smart, quick-witted, and strong, she's not a Victorian lady to be taken lightly. I found her internal struggles with self-esteem to be quite honest, and I appreciated the way she didn't take herself too seriously, but also never dismissed her own abilities. Carriger's cast of characters was SO entertaining - I'm hard pressed to pick a favorite, but Lord Akeldama certainly tops the list.
This book was a true joy to read - Carriger clearly loves language, and plays with it to great effect. Her writing is witty and sharp, and had me laughing many times. As an example -
“The vampire's eyes were open, and he was staring at her intently. It was as though he were trying to speak to her with simply the power of a glare.
Alexia did not speak glare-ish.”
Moments like this were found throughout the book, making it easy to turn the pages. There were a few times that I thought the author might have played a bit loose with Victorian convention, but I suppose when you create and England that has accepted vampires and werewolves, you have a bit of license to change up the rules. This was one of the most fun novels I've read this year, and I'm looking forward to more adventures with Alexia.
I really enjoyed this book. For me, who has read plenty of paranormal romance novels, this one felt unique in that it was so smartly written. The big mystery wasn't much of a surprise, but the plot was fun and new. Mostly, I enjoyed this book due to the main character. She was sassy and brazen without being mean-spirited, and that felt refreshing. She was also incredibly smart, and I really appreciate intelligent female leads in my books, rare as they are.
I somehow didn't realize this was a werewolf book until I started reading, and I generally hate werewolves in books, so I was worried. But the werewolves in this book, although they are alpha male and definitely part animal, aren't controlling, abusive rapists. Hooray for that!
All this said, I think the book could've used more plot and much more science and a little less love story. I don't feel like jumping immediately to the second in the series because the story was so neatly tied up at the end of this one. But I'm sure I'll read it, maybe to revive myself one day after I suffer through a book with a female lead who faints a lot or something.
No está nada mal, sobre todo empezando por que los vampiros y los hombres lobos son los de toda la vida.
La protagonista es vivaz, alegre y me gustó mucho su manera de ser.
Hay veces que he tenido la sensación de que en algunos momentos va lento, y en otras demasiado deprisa.
Pero en general me ha dejado un buen regusto, y siempre estará en mi memoria Alexia Taraboti y toda la fauna victoriana que le rodea. Leeré el segundo, a ver si sigue la estela de este libro.