I hate not finishing books. I really do, and I used to swear I wouldn't do it. But when my to-read pile is getting higher and higher, I just don't have enough time to read a book that doesn't engage me. After 150 pages, I need to be interested, and I just wasn't. 
 When I heard the words "Victorian" and "Dystopian" in the same description, I was drooling. And the world is everything I expected. It's lush, well thought out, and a pretty believable. The mix of hyper-modern technology and Victorian culture gives it that steampunk feel I really love. The presentation could have used some work, though. You learn the entire history of the world since modern day as the heroine writes a history paper. This put a sour taste in my mouth from the beginning. 
 I suppose I should say up front that I don't really like zombies. I have read a select few stories where I appreciated them, where the symbolic nature of the beasts served enough of a purpose to save the story. But by and large, I really don't care for them. I don't find them scary or creepy, I just find them gross. And Lia Habel is really good at describing gross. 
 But I could've gotten past that if there had been a single character that I cared about. Instead the heroine was that peculiar mixture of awkward yet beautiful that seems to make up every YA heroine, with just enough smart-ass and spoiled to be annoying. And the hero is the brooding, troubled, doomed-to-die puppy dog who falls for her from the start. They seem to have no unique characteristics. 
 All-in-all, I found this book to be another of those good-idea-gone-bad situations. The theory was better than the execution. Two stars for a really cool world.