"Boneshaker" by Cherie Priest

416 pages

In the early days of the Gold Rush in the Northwest, Russian prospectors hired inventor Leviticus Blue to create a machine that could drill through Alaska's thick ice to reach the precious metals. What he came up with was Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Machine. On its first run, something went wrong. The Boneshaker went out of control, destroying downtown Seattle and opening the source of a subterranean gas that turns everyone who breathes it into the living dead. A wall was built to enclose the toxic city and keep "the Blight" contained.

Now it's sixteen years later. Leviticus Blue's widow, Briar, is just trying to make it through each day, living just outside the wall around Seattle and working in a dangerous factory to put enough food on the table for herself and her fifteen-year-old son, Ezekiel. Her late husband's ruined reputation have left Briar isolated and lonely, so Zeke is all she has left. Then Zeke becomes convinced that his father was set up by the Russians and is determined to clear his name. He disappears behind the walls of the devastated city of Seattle to search for evidence, and Briar is forced to go after him. Neither of them could have imagined the horrors of the ravenous undead, criminals, and pirates that wait for them within the city.

I loved every minute of this steampunk adventure and the funky twist it puts on the Gold Rush period of American history. Briar and Zeke are both characters who are easy to relate to, and I was pulling for them the whole way. I really loved some of the secondary characters, too, particularly Lucy and Angeline. Both of them, as well as Briar, are strong, independent females and I like seeing that in books that take place during the Civil War era. My only complaints are that part of the end doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the story (that's all I'll say to avoid spoilers), and some of the dialogue didn't ring true to me (I doubt that anyone said, "Hey man, you're a champ" in the 1860s). Still, I highly recommend this book for fans of either steampunk and zombie fiction.