I haven't read any Alternate History books before, but this was extremely interesting. The general concept of this story, is that, in this alternative Victorian England, when a person sins, they smoke. Smoke comes out of their mouths, ears, nose, even their very pores. Different kinds of sin, and different kinds of sinners, create different kinds of smoke.
In a world such as this, naturally, the smokeless are in charge. Now, in theory, this sounds like the ideal society, right? The righteous rule the world, the evil die in squalor. Utopia.
However, what is Utopia without medical horrors, government corruption, and tampered religions?
It turns out, that the rich stay rich by selling smoke-absorbing candy to other rich people. This effectively keeps the corrupt politicians in power. Of course, the goal is to eventually not need the candies anymore, so the rich put their children in boarding schools where the smoke is beaten out of them. Their clothes and bedsheets are examined at the end of every week.
The main characters of this story are Thomas Argyle, Livia Naylor, and Charlie Cooper. Thomas and Charlie are as close as friends can get; nearly brothers. Charlie is a saint- barely smokes, heart of gold, manners of a prince- a perfect gentleman. Thomas is the opposite. His teachers have practically told him he would murder someone someday. Together, they make a formidable team. Judge and Jury. Livia is a nun, never uses candies, never smokes, never shows any emotion whatsoever.
Visual wise, this book was gorgeous: dark, alluring, nearly a horror. All the terrible things you've heard about Victorian medical and scientific practices are present in this book. The traditional struggle between good and evil is blurred, no longer strictly black and white. The heroes themselves discover that not all smoke is evil, and not all smokeless are devout.
Sadly, as seems to always be the case in books with two heroes and one heroine, there is a love triangle. Livia is immediately drawn to Charlie, the saint, but when he has to go solo for a while, leaving Thomas and Livia alone, she suddenly falls for Thomas as well. Personally, I don't think either relationship was basis for love. Livia's attraction to Thomas is purely lustful, and her crush on Charlie is really more about feeling obligated to like him because he's such a nice person. I was very disappointed how Vyleta concluded this triangle.
I'm really not sure who the villain of this story was supposed to be, which is just the way I like it. But right now, I'd like to talk about one of antagonists, Julius Spencer, who, in this book, fills the roll of devil-incarnate. You hate him from the second page of the book, but at this point, he is nothing but a holier-than-thou rich kid, ruling over his own little empire of schoolboys, issuing righteous punishments with an unforgiving hand. But he goes mad halfway through the book. By the end, he is a dead man walking. A broken corpse running on nothing but smoke. It's terrifying and gorgeous; really well done.
I was extremely unsatisfied with the ending, however, I'm not sure what could've been done differently. The overall character development of the three heroes left a lot to be desired. Livia's development seemed to be solely based around her realization that Thomas liked checking her out. Charlie didn't change noticeably at all, and Thomas's character really only got a longer, more tragic of backstory than he already had. Very disappointing.
Many reviews have compared this book to the Harry Potter books, but I can't see where they're getting that. The only similarities is the ratio of girls to boys, and that there's a boarding school in England. Other's compared it to Dickens, but it's been so long since I've read any to comment on this.
If you're into horrors, mysteries, or just generally darker books, you'll probably like this book. If not, you'll hate it. I thought it was pretty good, but I will not be recommending it to anyone.
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