DNF @ 30%.

I loved the premise of this book. But I disliked reading this book. A lot.

It isn't because of the writing itself...in fact, Hardinge can WRITE. Here's some absolute zingers:

There was a hunger in her, and girls were not supposed to be hungry. They were supposed to nibble sparingly when at the table, and their minds were supposed to be satisfied with a slim diet too.

And...

"A girl cannot be brave, or clever, or skilled as a boy can. If she is not good, she is nothing. Do you understand?"

And finally...

Her self-respect had suffered a head-on collision with love, a clash that generally only ends one way. Love does not fight fair. In that moment her pride, the gut knowledge that she was right, even her sense of who she was, meant nothing, faced as she was with the prospect of being unloved.

Is it the material that rubs me the wrong way? The foundations of a time period that offends me on some deep unconscious level, getting under my skin and driving me to want to throw the book against a wall? Is this more a reflection of me and my feelings than the book and the author?

Man, I don't know. Maybe that means it's a great book.