Review: Soulless by Gail Carriger

[Heather Olson]

Soulless by Gail Carriger is a short novel about Miss Alexia Tarabotti. Alexia is a twenty-six-year-old spinster in the 19th century London, under the rule of Queen Victoria. She's Italian, has a "large" nose and dark skin and is hot-tempered. Oh, yeah – and she's soulless. As a soulless preternatural, Alexia can remove the supernatural abilities of werewolves, vampires, ghosts and the like, returning them to their human form for as long as she maintains physical contact with them. While werewolves think of her as a curse-breaker, vampires think she's a soul-sucker. Only one thing is for certain – someone wants to experiment on her, whether or not it kills her!

Soulless is from the viewpoint of Alexia, who is not a young adult. In fact, there were no children or young adults present in the novel at all. Being a spinster in the 19th century, Alexia's mother was present frequently as she could not leave the house unchaperoned. However, Alexia frequently did what she wished, regardless of the damage it could have done to her reputation. The novel was fairly fast-paced and entertaining but I do not think it would be for a young adult. There are a lot of historical references and the women are old-fashioned in their manner – prone to fainting and gasps at the mere mention of anything that could be scandalous. It is a fiction novel that is fantasy/sci-fi in nature, dealing with a soulless preternatural so I believe it deals with a variety of subjects in that way. Additionally, Alexia is verbally persecuted frequently for being Italian and having dark skin, a large nose, etc. in comparison to her fair-skinned, blonde and perfectly British half-sisters. The book is silly and fun and optimistic as the characters achieve their individual accomplishments but I find no emotions that would be important to young adults.

For further information, you can visit the author's website at http://www.gailcarriger.com/. She provides information on the novels (it is a series) and London at the time in which the novel takes place.

Having read the first two books, I really like this series so far and will continue reading them for entertainment. However, I would not include this in the classroom or even on my classroom shelves for independent reading. There is no educational value that I can see for young adults, no lesson to be learned. I am not even sure why this book is on a young adult reading list. There is a lot of steamy romance scenes in it that, although they take place in the 19th century, may be too much for a teacher to include on her classroom shelves, especially since there is no underlying educational lessons or themes in the novel. I feel that those things can be overlooked in search of a grander lesson. Instead of being a historical novel, it is a novel that happens to take place in that time period and all references to Queen Victoria's rule are in direct relation to the supernaturals in London and do not portray the events that occurred under her rule. I suppose if students are reading this novel, the appeal could be the entertainment it provides and the love that develops within it, in addition to the vampire/werewolf craze that is currently happening among young adults today.