I requested THE CONSTANTINE AFFLICTION from Netgalley because I just couldn't pass up the blurb. It sounded too absurd, but it was there for the reading, so I gave it a chance, and I'm glad I did. Even though there's such a strange premise--a gender-swapping disease?--the novel didn't delve into the stupid or the perverse. The book instead asks the question "what happens when gender roles don't mean what they used to? Are they necessary at all?" and makes you think, an oddity in the steampunk genre. There's a bit of a hand-wavey explanation for the disease's cause, and there are aliens (!) introduced near the end, but on the whole the book is well-written and quite often funny. The setting feels real and shows the research the author did on the Victorian period, while the characters each have their own voice. While the overall story arc is completed, there is probably more to be told from this alternate world, and I'd be interested to see what this author comes up with.

Received as a digital ARC via Netgalley.