This YA novel is the second in the “Leviathan” trilogy and takes up within days after the first book, Leviathan, leaves off. As in the first book, it is written from the perspective of the two protagonists: Deryn Sharp, a midshipman who disguised herself as a boy in order to join the British Air Service, and Prince Aleksander, the heir to the Austria-Hungary Empire, in hiding from those who murdered his parents for political gain.

Set mostly in Istanbul, the Ottoman Empire’s seat of government, it deals with the political gamesmanship between Germany (“the Clankers”) and Britain (“the Darwinists”) as they attempt to secure the support – or at least declared neutrality – of the Ottoman Empire in their recently declared war.

The plot centers around the exploits of Deryn (called Dylan, as part of her disguise) as she completes spectacular feats of heroism to save her shipmates, plant bioweapons, and help bring down the enemy’s weaponry. Alek fares less well in this episode. He is still too much in himself regarding his breeding and royal upbringing, giving himself away at almost every turn. Fortunately, he falls in with the sympathetic and wily revolutionaries in Istanbul (“we do not refer to it as Constantinople”) who are trying to remove the German influence in their country and depose the corrupt sultan.

This book describes in more detail the “fabrications” of the Darwinists and the machines of the Clankers, and does a fine job of interweaving actual historical events and the “alternate” history of a Darwinist vs Clanker political divide. It also reveals the deepening feelings Deryn has for Alek.

Behemoth continues to maintain the fast pace and light tone began in Leviathan that made it an enjoyable read both for teens and adults. I was keen to pick up the third book – Goliath – more to see how the relationship between Deryn and Alek resolves than how the war itself will end. ( )

Super slow at the start but I really enjoyed it once I hit the halfway point.

Tropes: girl disguised as boy, secret royal

Content: war related violence (not detailed), a girl kissed Deryn thinking she was a he, lots of crushing

4 Stars ( )

Not bad, not bad. I could comment on the plot (pretty good, if sometimes slow) or the world-building (great!) or the excessive Holy-Armadillos-Batman! faux British cursing, but I just want to be a fan here for a moment. I have ~*feelings*~ about Dylan and Lilit and their queer/genderqueer subtext. (Surprise! Not.) I wish it could be a bit more text....

- Though most of the character interactions in Behemoth feel very true, not excepting Alek & Deryn's friendship, I don't buy Dylan's crush on Alek. It's more of a plot point than anything, to give Dylan a reason to struggle about whether to tell Alek she's a girl.

- I was really annoyed when it looked like Westerfeld was going to give us a played-for-laughs version of Lilit's crush on Dylan, but I should not have doubted that Lilit would be on top of things! I love that she knows before she kisses Dylan, and I love that Dylan likes it, and aaaaaah baby queers saving the world yesssssss!! It looks like that might be the end of Lilit's involvement in the series, which is very unfortunate. I hope I'm wrong. (And I hope she comes back and sweeps Dylan off her feet, but I'm not holding my breath. This is why fanfic was invented.)

- I desperately want Alek to get a bit more worldly and discover he has a crush on boy!Dylan (yes, even though I don't think Dylan's thing for him holds water), but I don't think he's there yet.

I appreciated the Jewish iron golems! We only got tiny tastes of the mythology/symbology that different cultures applied to walkers in the city, but I bet Westerfeld has a huge essay about this somewhere on his hard drive, and I would love to read it. ( )

Enjoyed the first book a bit more than this one but the whole series has only been just okay so far. Still really only listening to the books because I live listening to the narrator. ( )

Finally finished the book! Well worth it, and I'm ready to dive into the next and last of the Trilogy. ( )