Something Strange and Deadly (Something Strange and Deadly, #1) in All Challenges All The Time

Jan 02, 2017 Rabbit {Paint me like one of your 19th century gothic heroines!} rated it liked it

Shelves: 2017-keepers, keepers, from-sarah, dark, fiction, ooh-pretty-cover, mt-tbr-2017, creatures, three-stars, victorian-era

This book was a guilty pleasure read.

This book had it faults- I wish the world building had a bit more to it. I wish some of the characters had a bit more depth (like Jie, I want to read more about her). This book is not really steampunk either, which is fine- I just thought I would mention that.

Eleanor's mother was so extra and lolzy. Oh my word. That seance scene killed me.

The cover is gorgeous. Much goth. So for the love of corsets.

I actually ship Eleanor/Daniel. They are cute together.

This ...more

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Nov 27, 2011 Kathy rated it really liked it

Shelves: supernatural, girls_kick_butt, historical-fiction, young-adult-fantasy, young-adult-romance, sci-fi, steampunk, horror, action

I really liked it and it wasn't really what I expected! I guess I didn't figure how it would all come together. I mean to have steampunk and zombies with historical fiction? It could have been a disaster! But it was really really good!

I loved Eleanor! She's feisty and stubborn! She's brave and has a big heart! Daniel was a sweetheart! And Joseph and Jie were awesome too! I loved it when they were fighting the zombies off! And Daneil's cool inventions!

The ending was spectacular! Huge fight scene ...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Jojobean rated it it was amazing

Shelves: zombie, hardcover, set-in-us, physical-books-owned, favorites, 2012-publication, steampunk, series-book-1, 5-star-ratings

* CONTAINS SPOILERS****

Zombies:
This book was amazing. I loved the entire book.
The zombies in this book were not the kind of zombies that are created by a disease but they are dead corpses that are reanimated by a necromancer, which I have recently heard that that was how zombies were originally thought to be "made". Many of the zombie books I've read had to do with a disease thats turns people in to zombies as well as bites from zombies. I later found out that people original * CONTAINS SPOILERS****

Zombies:
This book was amazing. I loved the entire book.
The zombies in this book were not the kind of zombies that are created by a disease but they are dead corpses that are reanimated by a necromancer, which I have recently heard that that was how zombies were originally thought to be "made". Many of the zombie books I've read had to do with a disease thats turns people in to zombies as well as bites from zombies. I later found out that people originally believed that zombies were reanimated because of magic/voodoo done by a sorcerer or a necromancer. I like this version of zombies better. The whole disease aspect of zombies has been so overplayed that its refreshing to read a book that gives another aspect of zombies.

I like how in this book a necromancer controls the zombies and how even he slowly can lose control of his zombies. When the necromancer loses control the zombies become "hungry" or rabid and that is when they attack and eat humans. While a zombie is under the necromancers control, they don't go after humans- they do exactly what the necromancer commands them to do. I thought that was pretty cool.

Eleanor:
I really liked Eleanor. She was a kick ass girl who wasn't afraid to fight zombies. The book is set in the 1870's so back them girls were prim and proper but I like how Eleanor wasn't. She helped the spirit hunters fight the zombies by actually breaking their kneecaps and touching them. I was impressed by her. She always wanted to help, not caring about her reputation or getting down and dirty. She even put on guy clothes to help the spirit hunters. I also liked how she gets hurt in the book. Many of the paranormal book I read, the hero or heroine fights demons, vamps, werewolves or any being and always comes out unscathe. In this book Eleanor gets electrocuted, bombed, loses her hearing for a few days, dozens of cuts and even has her right hand amputated in the end. For me, the fact that Eleanor got so drastically hurt and kept on fighting makes the book more realistic to me and I gotta hand that to the author.

Plot
One thing I gotta say is that I knew right from the beginning that Eleanor's brother was the necromancer. I just put it together when Clarence (friend who calls on her and knew her brother in school) said that two of his friends died. Once the second friend died I knew that Elijah (Eleanor's brother) was the necromancer and he was killing the people who used to bully and torment him in school. I liked how Elijah wasn't an evil person but misgiuded. For me, he kinda redeemed himself when he saved Eleanor from their father's "hungry" skeleton and ended up dying for her. The ending made me choke up when Eleanor saw her brother's soul as he used to be with her father. That was a sweet and touching moment in the book.

I also liked how the romance in the book was not an integral part of the story. The book would of went along fine if the romance didn't happen. The story wasn't dependent on Daniel and Eleanor being together. There were many times during the book Eleanor leaves Daniel to do something she feels is more important, like try to stop her necromancer brother or deliver the dynamite to Joseph after Daniel finishes yelling at her. They each are their own person and don't really need each other to do what they want or have to. I like that they want each other but don't need each other.

One more thing I gotta say that was so cool was near the end when Eleanor went to go get the grimoire from the government hall in the Exhibition abd all the dead animals came to like. I would have never thought to include that in my book if I was an author. But it totally made sense that if a necromancer had power over the dead that he could reanimate animal corpses too and make animal zombies. That part was suprising.

Love the book ...more

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