Age: High School

At first not particularly enticing, Westerfeld managed to draw me in with his authentic characters and masterfully descriptive action scenes. Just like the Uglies series, the first 50-100 pages were pretty meh but then he managed to hypnotize me with his fantastic characters and his fluid progression of the plot. I finally read a steampunk book that I really enjoyed! Regarding his unorthodox use of steampunk (alternate history of WWI, not Victorian era), Westerfeld provides an author's note, explaining that

"Leviathan is as much about possible futures as alternate pasts. It looks ahead to when machines will look like living creatures, and living creatures can be fabricated like machines. And yet the setting also recalls an earlier time in which the world was divided into aristocrats and commoners, and women in most countries couldn't join the armed forces--or even vote. That's the nature of steampunk, blending future and past."

Goodreads decription: "Prince Aleksander, would-be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battletorn war machine and a loyal crew of men.

Deryn Sharp is a commoner, disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.

With World War I brewing, Alek and Deryn's paths cross in the most unexpected way"