Can a YA series for once have a first book that can at least be read on its own and not leave things so INCREDIBLY OPEN-ENDED so that I have to read the rest? I'm so annoyed right now, I'm not going to.

Deryn was a little annoying. She didn't seem to have any real character development, and only grew more and more awesome as the book went on -- which, in most cases, would be great, but Westerfeld has fallen into the heroine trap that most YA authors do; he wanted to make a girl so awesome, she hopped the line into Mary Sue land. I'm sure some would disagree with me, but that's how I saw it. Also, I got really tired of hearing her quirky phrases. One more "blister!" and I was going to toss the book out my window. (Except not really, it's a library book.) Alek, on the other hand, had a great, visible character development story line, and I liked him much better.

Overall, this was a fun read, and while I'm not a big fan of steampunk, I enjoyed the alternate history world building.

Not sure this was as amazing as everyone claims it is, but it was a pretty good read.

Must frustrating was that we spent so little time with every character. Just enough time to get to like and understand them (for the most part) and then the book moves on to someone else as Sasha and Bennie's lives are sketched out.

Way anti-climactic ending and I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but I enjoyed the read.

Didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I did the Sookie Stackhouse or Lily Bard books. I'm not sure why; it's clear enough to follow without having read the first two in the series, and Harper's gift is an interesting twist on supernatural fare. It just didn't click with me, and by the time the killer is revealed, I was skimming the last 20 pages just so I could finish it.