…a boys’ school for budding evil geniuses and a prime source of recruitment for the Picklemen. Bunson and Lacroix’s Boys’ Polytechnique is actually… Handle is the new unofficial head since Soap was saved in Waistcoats & Weaponry. …the boys who keep the boilers turning over and do all the repairs. Braithwope Professor Shrimpdittle and, Sister Mattie teaches botany and poisons.Ĭaptain Niall is a werewolf who is no longer teaching self-defense after events in Waistcoats & Weaponry. Teachers include the clueless Mademoiselle Geraldine as headmistress Lady Linette is the one truly in charge Professor Braithwope is a rove vampire gone nutso who is tethered to the dirigible Professor Lefoux is drone to Prof. ![]() ![]() The school “building” is a dirigible that floats in the skies with a cover of steam. …a cover for teaching those “young ladies of quality” how to spy using the weapons of their gender and status. Miss Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality is… Hisselpenny, and her husband loves to indulge her.ĭimity Plumleigh-Teignmott (manipulation through proper dress is her forté - amazing the weapons that can be concealed in a hat!), the shy and retiring Agatha Woosmoss has an unexpected talent for Encrypting with Flower Arrangements with a special study on tussie mussies and airborne poisons and, their fellow friend (and former student after events in Waistcoats & Weaponry), Lady Kingair, who is now preparing to leave the country. Petunia is the most-recently married sister. Bumbersnoot is her coal-eating mechanimal, her pet metal dog, with the ability to swallow in two different ways: storage or into his boiler. Sophronia “Ria” Temminnick is an excellent student in the finishing arts of espionage who has promised to enter the dewan’s service. It will all lead to a series of derring-do worthy of James Bond! The Characters What could they possibly want? Why take this chance? Infiltration by Picklemen of the school sets off Sophronia’s mental alarms. There are quite a few surprising revelations in this, and what with Carriger so beautifully tying everything up and then leading me on to wanting, no, needing to re-read The Parasol Protectorate, and then I can finally read The Custard Protocol series! Characters from Finishing School carry on into both, and I do love following characters throughout their “lives”. She certainly kept me on tenterhooks! And such a conclusion…! Carriger does a lovely job of exploring social class and bigotry in the burgeoning relationship between the two. There’s a lovely minor conflict in Manners & Mutiny in the changing relationship between Sophronia and Soap. What was next? A ruthless bout of ballet?” “Last time all they’d done was have sing ‘Rule Britannia!’. ![]() Or that emotions affected the size and quality of one’s endowments! Sigh…*as I laugh* ![]() Manners & Mutiny was great fun what with Sophronia infiltrating the dirigible, going against the odds to take down the hijackers using the “arts” she’s learned, lol.ĭang! I wish I’d known much earlier that breast-pampering foodstuffs existed. You can’t help but fall into the enjoyment. The story itself is fun with all sorts of undercurrents and minor conflicts. Nor does she limit her inventiveness to the names or lessons. She has such fun blending finishing school requirements with espionage tactics for refined young ladies…! “Working on a language for crumb and currant communication” indeed! Then there are the names! Oh, lordy, Carriger is incredibly inventive with those silly names, lol. Do read this series before you start The Parasol Protectorate, if only because the characters in this one lead into the next series. Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Heartless, Timeless, Etiquette & Espionage, Curtsies & Conspiracies, Waistcoats & Weaponry, Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Prudence, Imprudence, Competence, Reticenceįourth and last in the Finishing School steampunk YA series and revolving around Sophronia Temminnick and her friends and set in the skies of 1854 England. Steampunk in Hardcover edition that was published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers on Novemand has 326 pages. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review.
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