Review: Masque of the Red Death

Masque of the Red Death
by Bethany Griffin

Plot Summary:

Everything is in ruins.

A devastating plague has decimated the population, and those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles around them.

So what does Araby Worth have to live for?

Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery makeup . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.

But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club, and Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.

And Araby may find not just something to live for, but something to fight for—no matter what it costs her.

Review:

When I first started reading this book, I was wondering where this story was going.  I knew that it was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's short story so I wondered how it could be turned into a fully fledged YA series.  The book was a pleasant surprise because there is quite a lot of plot, but I don't know if it was entirely successful.

The world-building seemed too summary for me, I believe there must be more answers in the next books, but I felt that there was so little in this one, that it made it hard for me to immerse myself in the story.  I'm especially curious as to the nature of these masks: why it protects only one, why is it alright to take it off indoors (or were they always supposed to wear it indoors, I wasn't sure), and why don't they need to disinfect their clothes and themselves if they've come from the outdoors in? I may have been thinking a little too much about the pathology of this disease.  There were a few other things that were too sketchily drawn for me - like how this world functions when it seemed like almost everything is shut down.  And for Elliott's plan - who was bankrolling that? I thought it would take quite a bit of money to pull off what he wanted to pull off.  It was just a little hard to picture this world at times.

Araby Worth was pretty apathetic for most of this book which was due to the loss of someone close to her, and so very understandable, especially in this bleak post-apocalyptic world, but it's not a characteristic I like to see in my female heroines.  Her voice is very straightforward and matter of fact in this book which also might explain why there was so little said about the world-building in the way of descriptions.  I think I was just a little put off as well by how quickly she trusted certain people around her, and how quick she was to betray others who were closer to her.  I just didn't feel as sympathetic to her character and I wanted her to take more control.

The two men that are presented in the love triangle were probably the best part of this book.  I had such strong sympathies for Will that when there's a certain twist near the end of the book I was pretty shocked.  I was sympathetic with Elliott for a time as well although he's not as trustworthy, but he has gone through some terrible things, and the way the author hints at his past was very well done because I really wanted to know more.

While the idea of this book was very exciting, and I loved the insidious horror of the plot, I was not as moved by the main character as I would have wished, and I wanted just a few more answers to really flesh out this world for me.  I can understand why people have enjoyed this book - it is very fast paced and darkly atmospheric with a lot of mystery and perhaps I will enjoy the series as a whole when I have all the answers.

I won this book as part of Cuddlebuggery's LBBA

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