Manners and Mutiny

Carriger, Gail. Manners and Mutiny. Book 4 and final book of the Finishing School series. 2015. 326p. ISBN 978-0-3161-9028-2. Available at FIC CAR on the library shelves.

With Sidheag and Soap gone, Sophronia finds herself with two fewer friends as her last year at Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing School for Young Girls continues. Soap survived his transformation into a werewolf, and he is now under the protection of her new patron. Sophronia witnesses several incidents reveal that the Picklemen are plotting against the British government, but no one takes her seriously.

At Christmastime, Sophronia is surprised to find out she will be spending the vacation with her sister Petunia, and her friends Dimity and Agatha. They are invited for dinner at Lord  Akeldama’s house, where they are almost killed by a new military mechanimal. What are the Picklemen really up to?

In this concluding book, Sophronia will be pitted against merciless enemies and advanced plots that would make more than one young lady of qualité blush. Secrets will be revealed. The fate of the British Empire hangs in the balance. And, of course, all of this will happen in a dramatic fashion, both action and clothes-wise. Sophronia holds her future in her hands, but, like a mechanical chicken bomb, it could blow up at any time.

Fans of the first three books (Etiquette and Espionnage, Curtsies and Conspiracies, and Waistcoats and Weaponry) will enjoy this concluding chapter that nicely ties together all of the loose ends and will agree with the choices Sophronia makes in the end.