Storm Glass ~ Jeff Wheeler (Harbinger #1)

★★★★☆

"We all learn, little woman, that before we can be old and wise, we must at first be very young and foolish."

This is marketed as young adult, and while the writing style and pacing were definitely of that genre, the main characters were both 12 throughout the entire novel, which was surprising to me at first. The plot was well paced, though, and the characters well rounded, so it was not a bad thing by any means.

I was drawn into the story and the world as soon as Cettie's character was introduced. She had a gothic quality to her that reminded me of Jane Eyre, and her storyline gave me strong Mansfield Park vibes, which I really liked and appreciated.

Unfortunately, I did not feel such about our other heroine, Sera, at least not for a long while. I found her initially more along the lines of the princess part of Barbie's The Princess and the Pauper: whiney, ungrateful, and ~so unconventional~ But after some hardships, her character really blossomed into someone I genuinely cared about.

"Some knowledge, important knowledge, requires a price to be paid before it is learned. The secrets must be guarded. But they can be learned."

I was not a huge fan of the unnecessary love interests, as they made the 12 year old protagonists feel much older, especially since their respective love interests were both a few years older than them. The other secondary characters, such as Sera's governess Hugilde, Mr Durrant (an iconic gem of a man), and Anna were all great additions that helped to populate the world and expand the breadth of the characters.

I did not like the random thoughts from a seemingly unimportant character, Lady Corrine of Pavenham Sky, as they were largely unrelated to the themes of the novel, and served only to reiterate worldbuilding, spew pointless philosophy, and distract from the plot. The character in question, when she did appear, did not seem even remotely like her philosophical self.

The malevolent spirits and their influence in Cettie's life, as well as Fitzroy's apparent ability to ward them off, was immediately compelling and I was dying to know more about them. I loved the worldbuilding as a whole and was fascinated by the mixture of myth and science. It reminded me a lot of one of my favorite underrated novels, Dominion by Shane Arbuthnott, with its historical feel and steampunk mixed with otherworldly fantasy aspects.