I am quite tired of historical fiction (usually YA) in which the heroine absolutely hates being female and being forced to wear skirts and corsets and she is simply dying to run around in pants and swear and be a boy and a sailor/soldier/insert physically intense and usually dangerous male role here. I strongly believe that is anachronistic in almost every case. Modern authors think, "How dreadful to be polite and wear a corset! She must want to be a boy!" That is sexist and frankly more than a little Freudian. Apparently authors are the only people still alive who believe that each woman desires a unit of her very own. For heaven's sake. I think it is lazy writing and a misplaced desire to have a female main character at any cost. Westerfeld, next time just make the main characters both male and spare me the anti-feminine crap.

However, even if both main characters had been male, I would still only give this book two stars. There are pages and pages of detailed descriptions of war machines and animal hybrids. Bo-ring. Twelve-to-fourteen-year-old boys should love this book.