To be honest, I got 60% of the way into this book and did not want to waste another hour of estimated reading time finishing it. I read every word of the first 2 chapters, then skimmed until chapter 23. It's not worth it.

I added this book to my TBR wishlist when I first heard about the movie. I saw the trailer and thought it looked interesting and had friends who were pretty excited about the movie. Then I heard the movie was bad. I thought maybe it was fans of the book who were disappointed in the translation. The movie does take some liberties, some of which are good and some of which are bad. Overall, the movie isn't a good movie, but when it's based on a bad book, I'm not sure what people expected. It's also based on a book written in 2001. This smacks of a film company trying to get the Hunger Games or Harry Potter audience without understanding that those were good books.

The premise of Mortal Engines has major flaws. The world building is terrible. The writing isn't good and the book has several sexist scenes. It could just be sexist. It's definitely bad. I should have known better because I was reading tons of books in 2000-2005, many based upon a large and varied reader community. If I did not hear of this book until I saw a movie trailer in 2018, that says something.

Overall, don't waste your time.