The Friday Society

     Some of you may remember hearing me talk about Alex and the Ironic Gentleman, one of my favorite books when I was younger (and still towards the top of my list).  This was author Adrienne Kress's debut book, cleverly written and ingeniously original in concept.  However, with no other books to go off (because it never turned up at the library, I wasn't able to read the sequel, Timothy and the Dragon's Gate), I was left to wonder about Adrienne Kress-- was she as brilliant an author as Alex implied, or was it a beginner's luck of sorts?  Did she put all of her inspiration into this book, or were there more brilliant stories to come?

     Thus, I was extremely intrigued when, several years after Alex, I came across a collection of short stories called Corsets and Clockwork: 13 Steampunk Romances, which featured a story written by none other than Adrienne Kress herself.  Now, I wasn't any more excited about the idea of steampunk romance than I am about any other type of romance, but I dutifully read the book-- and was shocked.  Adrienne's story stood out far above any of the others-- Yes, it was a romance story, but I liked it.  It was told in such a brilliant way that I almost forgot I was even reading romance.  She took the same guidelines as all the other authors in this book and made it her own: Her story was completely original, and it managed to be different while all the other stories were dully similar.

     Now aware of Kress's ability to write YA as well as children's books, I was very excited to learn about The Friday Society, another steampunkish YA story, this time an entire novel.  I was thrilled when I could finally get it from the library, and I read the whole book in an afternoon.  I loved it.  The plot was slightly less involved than Alex, but it was by no means dull.  The story follows several different threads that seem to be completely unrelated, but they all end up fitting together in the end.  This type of writing, which is also used frequently by Jaclyn Moriarty, is absolutely my favorite literary style.  I became attached to the three main characters, Cora, Nellie, and Michiko, and was impressed by the way their lives kept colliding throughout the story, eventually terminating in their forming a crime-fighting alliance(Spoilers! Highlight to read.)

     I now have a newfound love for Adrienne Kress's YA books, and I absolutely can't wait to read Outcast, Kress's latest YA book.  (This one, I've read, is sort of a quirky paranormal story, which should be right up my alley provided it doesn't have any sparkly vampires in it.)