That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnson

(I'm back, and I'm going to schedule some backlogged reviews. No promises for the future, but we'll see...)

In a near-future setting based on an alternate history British empire, Princess Victoria-Margaret visits Canada in disguise, in order to have a debut like other girls and a summer of freedom before she becomes too caught up in her responsibilities as future queen. Then, stuff happens — so much stuff that I can’t begin to summarize it here!

I’m . . . not sure what to think about this book, really. The characters are interesting, the worldbuilding complex. The pacing is pretty slow, so if you need a book to immediately grab you and start running, this is not the one for you. The ending might not be exactly what one would expect, though I did see the direction in which it was trending toward the last quarter of the book. I don’t want to provide any spoilers, so I’ll just say, as I said above, that I’m not entirely sure what to think. If you’re intrigued by the idea of an alternate British empire, you might give it a try for yourself.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the incomparable Katherine Kellgren, and all aspects of the audiobook production were very well done, indeed.

(Reviewed from an e-audiobook borrowed through my library system.)