Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Sedition by E. M. Wright is a YA steampunk adventure unlike any book that I've read before. I've always been a fan of steampunk aesthetics, but I've found the few steampunk books that I've read to be somewhat lacking in the imagination and wonder that the genre evokes When I requested this book, I was somewhat cautious because of my previous experiences with steampunk books. However, it turns out that I had nothing to worry about. Sedition is one of the most creative and innovative books that I've read this year!

The story revolves around Taryn Roft, a 17 year-old girl who lives in steampunk Victorian London. She goes to school at the School for Mechanicks, where students learn how to operate biomatons, clockwork cyborgs that have been enslaved by the upper class. Here is a scene from Chapter 1 which introduces the setting:

"The students of Grafton's School of Mechanicks followed their guide deeper into the newly opened London Museum of Bioclockwork. The building was huge, regal in a bare industrial sort of way. Their footsteps clattered across a stone floor inlaid with metal gilding: copper cogs elevated from functional to beautiful...
The group consisted of boys and young men, all bright-eyed, eagerly soaking up the information presented before them, and looking forward to the bright future they would have as clockmakers or mechanicks. Or, if they were very fortunate, as biomechanicks. But near the back of the group... a fierce-looking girl with a shock of bright red hair pulled into a tangled braid stood, her arms crossed, one hand covered with a black satin glove."

That is our first introduction to Taryn, our feisty heroine with a dark secret. I was rooting for her throughout the story. Soon she is forced to leave the school, and she goes on a rollicking, danger-filled adventure that takes her around the world. One highlight of this book is that the world-building is amazing, full of automatons and gas lamps. I felt like I was transported back in time to an alternative Victorian London, and I loved it. If there was any time period that I would want to travel to, steampunk London is at the top of my list!

Overall, Sedition is an amazing steampunk novel that will satisfy fans of that genre as well as any readers who enjoy fantasy and science reader. If the excerpt above intrigues you, or if you're a regular fantasy or sci-fi reader, you won't regret checking out this book when it comes out in May!