Storm Glass

Set in a world with a totally different class system, but which has a Victorian feel to it. This feels like a dystopian mix of steampunk Golden Compass and maybe a little Handmaid's Tale. The young female protagonist is enjoyable without getting too Mary-Jane-esque powerful. The world-building is fascinating, but raises a lot of questions about “how this all works” as there are some magical elements to it.

My sense is that this book intentionally sets the scene, raising those questions to be worked out later. It's mostly fast-paced with a couple of areas where it gets bogged down a tiny bit. In this one you get to know the protagonists Cettie and Sera and their separate worlds which do eventually come together to no reader's surprise.