TITLE: The Peculiars
AUTHOR: Maureen Doyle McQuerry
PUBLICATION DATE: May 1, 2012
PUBLISHER: Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams
PAGES: 372 pages
FORMAT: E-ARC
SOURCE: NetGalley
RATING: 2 stars
From the description of this book, it looked to have everything that would make me adore it. It’s historical, steampunk, paranormal, with a little romance thrown in there for good measure and it sounded amazing. But the reality fell a bit flat. I can’t stand Lena. The whole novel she irked me. Whining about her hands and feet and being embarrassed about her possible heritage. At the end of the novel, I liked her just a tinsy bit because she had gotten stronger but on a whole I detested her. I wasn’t really found of Merilee either. I really liked both Jimson and Tobias Beasley. The rest of the characters just felt like they faded into the background for me. I didn’t see a lot of character development, just a small bit for Lena.
The plot was more than a little predictable. From the moment the Marshall started taking an interest in Lena, I knew something was up. Then the plot follows her doing exactly the wrong thing which she is convinced is the right thing because she only knows half the truth. This causes them to go on the run and everything just gets worse after that. I didn’t care for the ending either. It was abrupt and doesn’t occur in a satisfactory way.
I felt like the writing felt dry to me. This novel didn’t make me laugh once and I value humor highly. Not one snicker or smile was garnered from novel. I guess the only good things I can really say is that it doesn’t have a love triangle and it is somewhat interesting. Though I didn’t much care for it, I still wanted to know where the story went. I also liked the historical detail and how the author even includes a historical note detailing where some of her facts came from.
****Thank you to ABRAMS for providing me with an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review****
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