Soulless
Gail Carriger
2/5
It almost made three stars, but the more I thought about it the more problems I had. Based on description and concept alone, this is a pretty interesting read. Vampires and werewolves in regency era London. Those who can be converted to vampire or werewolf are changed based on the strength of their soul, their polar opposites being the preternatural "soulless". Our heroine is soulless, while in contact with a werewolf, vampire, or ghost, she converts them back to their human form.
There was a lot of conflicting themes which made it difficult for me to appreciate anything in particular. It was a romance, but the romance felt diluted by the plot, the two didn't work together very cohesively and it felt abrupt. I know that there's a prequel which I didn't know about when starting the book, and while it wasn't essential, it would have probably filled in a few of my gaps in understanding.
I didn't like the perspective switches. It wasn't well-defined and I often couldn't tell whose perspective was being given. I appreciate hearing from multiple sides, but I would have preferred definitively knowing when I was in someone else's head. There were a few word choices that also confused me, I didn't know if it was just an attempt at trying to simplify the flow of regency speech, it just didn't feel right all of the time for me.
It wasn't a bad read, I finished it and liked it at points. There was just too much going on and I couldn't tell where the narration was coming from- I thought it was a standalone until I saw that it was a whole series. It's an interesting concept with questionable execution.
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