Leviathan

Westerfeld, S. (2009). Leviathan. NY: Simon Pulse. This fictional novel was based in 1914 and has two main characters. They are Aleksandar Ferdinand and Deryn Sharp. Alek is the prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and he is left orphaned at the beginning of the book. Deryn is a commoner girl pretending to be a boy, Dylan Sharp, just so she can be an airman in the service. The two main characters find themselves just trying to survive on opposite sides of the same war. I typically enjoy science fiction books, but this one had me scratching my head a few times. The invented terminology took away from the storyline. I found myself always pausing the figure out what a “Huxley” or “beasties” or “middies” were. There were times that I was reminded of the invented terms that were abundant in the Harry Potter series. This author seemed to use too many of the invented terms in my opinion. I would recommend to the high school students that read this book to continue with the series and read Behemoth and Goliath. The writing style of this book made it a little more difficult to read. The author chose to use a complex language that took away from the storyline. This particular style makes the book unique and does play a part in the fantastical genre of the book.