Steampunk is a very tricky thing but Bad In The Blood handles it so beautifully. I look forward to seeing more of this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tundra, and the author, Matteo L. Cerilli, for giving me an eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review!

My love of Cerilli's "Lockjaw" is well documented-- and to be clear, my feelings about that novel have not changed, I still absolutely love it. HOWEVER, "Bad in the Blood," may have surpassed even "Lockjaw," that's how good this book was. I'm going to be obsessed with BitB until, likely, the end of time. From the way gender is done, to the masterful allegory of "fae" as neurodivergence, there is nothing about this book I disliked. Every turn of the page brought a new part of the novel to love. It was simply a masterpiece.

Nobody writes sharp, lyrical, viscerally weird kidlit like Matteo. This was the smart and twisty fairy detective (!!!!) mashup of my dreams, but beyond all the delicious pulpiness, it was also a brilliant exploration of otherness and all its forms, as well as crooked institutions of power. It's rage and identity-building and magic and violence and trauma wrapped up in a stylish trench coat. Gristle and Hawthorne will stay with me forever.

Everyone needs to read this.

This was such a fun (not in the hilarious kind of way) and entertaining read? I frankly didn't expect it. Cerilli is a new-to-me author, so I went in not knowing if I would've liked their writing or their creativity, but I quickly changed my mind.

I loved the historical setting (always a big plus for me), the mystery and especially the characters. Absolutely recommended!