Allowing this book to share the same title as one of Poe's short stories seems almost criminal. This book was just not worthy of its source material. It's closer to Twilight than anything Poe would have created.
Masque of the Red Death is not a direct retelling of the short story of the same name by Edgar Allen Poe, but draws inspiration from the work. The story follows Araby Worth, the daughter of a successful and rich scientist. Araby lives in a steampunk-inspired world during a devastating plague that has wiped out most of the world's population, left the air dangerous to breathe, and keeps those still alive living in constant fear. Crippled by her past and seeking to forget, Araby spends most of her time with her vapid best friend at the Debauchery Club, getting drunk and high, in search of "oblivion".
Enter the love triangle. Araby is thrust into the underground world of rebellion in her city when she gets involved with Will and Elliott. She must now choose not only where her allegiance lies but how much and who she's willing to risk for these men.
I found that this book didn't have a lot of meat for such intriguing source material. The world seemed interesting and frightening, but the narration kept it vague and confusing. I didn't feel that the book lived up to it's own potential. The author was too caught up in the close to pointless love triangle reminiscent of Jacob-Bella-Edward.
As with so many YA novels these days, the love triangle is the dominant storyline. Will we ever get a break from this irritating cliche? The love triangle is made further ridiculous and unbelievable by the fact that the main character, Araby, is unbelievably unlikable. It's not that she's not deep or undeveloped. She's just irritating and mildly depressing. She wasn't strong or interesting enough to be the main character, let alone have the story told from her perspective.
Furthermore the author seems to have mistaken dark, Gothic, and painful sadness (some of Poe's trademarks in my opinion) for campy, contrived, and depressing storytelling. It is certainly a fine line, but Miss Griffin fell headlong onto the wrong side. She made a beautiful Poe tale into something juvenile and borderline ridiculous.
As far as the writing goes, I saw potential. The (very) few descriptions the author allowed us in this frustratingly vague novel were hauntingly beautiful. On top of that the scene structures were executed very well. Most of the scenes, if they were boring, at least ending on an action sequence, keeping you at least intrigued to find out what would happen next. However, as a whole, I found the writing to be incredibly rushed and clearly not thought out in the least. I found myself often confused and disconnected from the text.
On a good note, I do have to say that this book ended well. The last part of the book had interesting and exciting action sequences. Is it enough to make me want to read the sequel? We'll see I suppose.
Maybe I'm just sensitive, because Poe is one of my literary idols. Maybe I've finally lost it over all the cliche's in today's YA fiction. Either way I give this book 2/5 stars, for a poor execution to an interesting idea.
Check out Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin for yourself. And while you're doing that, check out my book, The Reviled, which is on sale right now for 99¢ (shameless self promotion)!
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