Review: Masque of the Red Death (Masque of the Red Death #1) By: Bethany Griffin

Title: Masque of the Red Death (Masque of the Red Death #1)

Author: Bethany Griffin

Published: April 24^th, 2012

Source: Bought

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Goodreads 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.

My Thoughts:

So, Masque of the Red Death was a different pick for me and I wasn’t sure how this book was going to be for me. I could tell with the summary that this one was going to be a dark book and I tend to not enjoy books that are darker as much but, I really liked this one. I hadn’t read the short story by Poe that this book is based on and I know that he is a very dark writer so I knew it would add to the book. Griffin created a world that I don’t think anyone would ever want to live in and the darkness really came through.

Araby spends every night at the Debauchery Club which is the way she escapes from the tragedy of what their world is. There is deadly plague in the world and to be safe they have to wear masks so that they don’t breathe the deadly air. But, the leader of the world is the Prince who has made his people prisoners of him. Araby meets Will and Elliot completely different and they both are working towards making this world better.

Araby was a breath of fresh air for a main character, she was flawed and she was just letting the terrible world take her over and she was definitely was not a typical YA character. She took a lot of things that happened into her life and she internalized them and took them on as her own. Throughout the book she took some of the darkness that she had and let it go and became stronger which made me enjoy her even more.

I actually really liked the love triangle in this book because I didn’t really like Elliot or Will, they were both too mysterious for me. I never could quite trust either one which made me so curious to know more about each of them and being torn towards wanting to Araby to stay away from them and not because I want to know more about him.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one and I can’t wait to get the next book and find out what happens next. If you enjoy darker reads and troubled main characters I definitely think you will enjoy this one.