Dearly, Departed (Dearly #1) by Lia Habel

My rating 3.5 stars out of 5
Dearly Departed is a great YA book which blends both Victorian and the punk genres and gives you a fantastic read.Like most punk books you would think that it is set around Victorian times but it is not.It is set up in the future where people still hold on to their old Victorian costumes but have digitised everything else. On one hand you have the Punks who are basically still using the old steam and coal techniques and making a living out of it on the other are the normal citizen who live with their beliefs and their new lifestyle.
Nora Dearly is your typical Victorian high school student who is the daughter of a scientist.She meets a young captain called Bram who takes her to safety to his camp when her life is in danger.Here when she is together with Bram, they fall in love and together, defeat the bonkers villain who wants Nora. But wait a minute, it is not as easy as that. Bram is dead.I mean not vampires in Twilight dead but undead, rotting flesh dead.He is a zombie and so is his entire secret base camp.

The premise seems so interesting that I was intrigued from the start.You have to give credit to the author for coming up with the idea of Victorian punk set in the future.For even trying make a romance out of Nora and a zombie.The romance was touching and I liked the way, Bram sneaked into Nora's heart( and yours).
However the let-down was the changing POVs. I have never seen it in YA before so I have to praise the author to have the courage to do so but it hampered the pace of the book.It did not contribute much to the story line but gave lots of characterisation. It had a total of 5 POV where only 2 POv would suffice.

Great action, adventure, mystery with a dose of romance, Dearly Departed keeps you entertained till the end. I enjoyed this book and urge readers to perhaps give this a chance as this a new style in the otherwise saturated YA book market.

ARC provided by NetGalley