A. J. Hartley

Thoughtfully imaginative and action-packed, Steeplejack is New York Times bestselling A. J. Hartley's YA debut set in a 19th-century South African fantasy world Seventeen-year-old Anglet Sutonga lives repairing the chimneys, towers, and spires of the city of Bar-Selehm. Dramatically different communities live and work alongside each other. The white Feldish command the nation’s higher echelons of society. The native Mahweni are divided between citylife and the savannah. And then there’s Ang, part of the Lani community who immigrated over generations ago as servants and now mostly live in poverty on Bar-Selehm’s edges. When Ang is supposed to meet her new apprentice Berrit, she instead finds him dead. That same night, the Beacon, an invaluable historical icon, is stolen. The Beacon’s theft commands the headlines, yet no one seems to care about Berrit’s murder—except for Josiah Willinghouse, an enigmatic young politician. When he offers her a job investigating his death, she plunges headlong into new and unexpected dangers. Meanwhile, crowds gather in protests over the city’s mounting troubles. Rumors surrounding the Beacon’s theft grow. More suspicious deaths occur. With no one to help Ang except Josiah’s haughty younger sister, a savvy newspaper girl, and a kindhearted herder, Ang must rely on her intellect and strength to resolve the mysterious link between Berrit and the missing Beacon before the city descends into chaos. “A richly realized world, an intensely likable character, and a mystery to die for." — Cory Doctorow, New York Times-bestselling author

A Novel

Steeplejack

Kirsten Simkiss

I feel this book deserves 3.5 stars, but in the absence of half stars, I leaned to 4.

Following the story of the Lani girl Anglet Sutonga, you are immediately placed in the shoes of a woman of color in an alternate universe from our own. 17 years old and dealing with the prejudices and the complications of the world of horse drawn carriages taking politicians to the opera house and lavish mansion as well as the slums of the Mahweni (blacks) who have only recently been allowed to join the military, Anglet has more than enough on her plate. When her older sister gives birth to a fourth female child, a taboo in Lani culture, Anglet takes on the burden of a newborn child while trying to solve a murder and a theft of the city's glowing crystal known as the beacon. Meanwhile, her ex-boss, who tried to sexually assault her and got stabbed in the side for it, may have had something to do with both things and wants to have her killed for stabbing him.

The ending is a good twist. The perpetrators of the crime are not all obvious. One you learn of and are sure of, but those truly responsible you do not immediately suspect as being involved.

I love how this book did not shy away from the hardships that people of color faced in this time period. While it's never stated quite which time period this is, the technology appears to be sometime during the 1800s - probably earlier rather than later. Factories are very much mentioned, but there's not a single mention of cars or motors. Everyone is riding in horse-drawn coaches. (Then again, this isn't the real world. It is very much fictionalized.) In this time period, quite obviously, there is a lot of unhappiness about how well off whites are in comparison to those of color. There's a rather good quote in one of the chapters about how it just isn't the same for white people to say everyone is equal now after years of making sure they had taken over every aspect of the city's high society. 

I kept feeling like I wanted more to connect with when it came to the characters. The only one I felt any connection to was her friend, Tanish, even though you don't get to see a tremendous amount of him in the story. With some, I just felt I wanted more of them to get to know them, like Sarah who seems pretty awesome honestly. With Anglet, whose perspective you take for the whole story, I felt that if you took the grief surrounding the death of her father and set it aside, there wasn't a great deal in life she seemed truly connected to. I felt that, in turn, made it hard to connect with. The emotional connection between most of the characters needed either more evidence of it (Vestris, for instance) or simply more to make it believable. When I read a book, I am all about the emotions of the characters. I soak it up. I wanted way more than this book gave me. That's my biggest complaint there.

Sheila

I received this book from TOR in a Goodreads Giveaway!

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" I remarked, realizing the importance of the question as I said it. "Why does whether I knew him or not matter? He was a child, a boy you murdered. I have to avenge him because I didn't know him. Because he will never have what other boys his age look forward to. He was snuffed out, all his possibilities ended by your knife, and I am not supposed to care because I didn't know him? Who are we if we care only for our own? What are we? What separates us from the hyenas and the weancats is that we care for those we don't know, those who have nothing and nobody they can rely on."

This quote, which came near the tail end of this book, cemented all of my positive feelings for Anglet Sutonga, the brilliant main character of Steeplejack. 

It's hard to classify this book into any one genre box, but generally speaking this is a YA alternate history/fantasy mystery/thriller coming-of-age story with great crossover appeal. 17yo Ang, a brown Lani 'steeplejack' working for a street gang in the industrial city of Bar-Selehm, finds herself suddenly and deeply embroiled in a vast conspiracy linked to the death of her would-be apprentice, 10yo Berrit. The mystery itself was well done, and incorporated Ang's struggles with racism, sexism, and classism - amongst other things - with a delicate grace that I didn't expect! I would normally find a white male author writing a book featuring a young, non-white girl to be questionable at best, but I have a feeling that this was edited very well to make sure the story didn't induce any serious side-eye reactions. Props where props are due! 

Honestly, my favourite part of this book was watching Ang grow in confidence from an easily-ignored orphaned nobody to a person that could hold her own & voice her opinions because she felt they mattered - that she mattered. That was a heartwarming transformation, despite the fact that Ang didn't have it easy in this book. I honestly would read a series just for more Ang, and I hope there's more of her to come soon!

Steeplejack A Novel

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