Bethany GriffinCríticas

I don't read much ghost/gothic/horror books but I was in the mood for something a little creepy and I heard about The Fall from another booktuber and it sounded interesting so I thought I'd give it a try. I did enjoy the story but it was confusing at times. The way the book is set up, it goes back and forth between the past and present. We get scenes where the main character is 16 then in the next chapter she's 10, then she's 16 again, then she's 12. It goes back and forth like that and at times I felt like I needed to have a paper and pen with me so I could map out the timeline. I really didn't like the ending. It left me with too many questions and I had no idea what happened to the characters. I know that's how it's supposed to be but I would like some type of closure to the story; I'm left completely hanging, which sucks seeing that this is a stand alone (at least I think it is). Overall it's not bad just kind of confusing at times and no closure to the end.

The Masque of Red Death is a different take of Edgar Allen Poe's short story.
-I myself didn't know he had wrote the original until i was told by my nan.

I have only read to chapter 11 of this book by Bethany Grifin, partly because after finding out it was a remake i decided to read the original which was darker and shorter yet somehow far better than what i read of this book.

Firstly where Edgar Allen Poe succeeds in keeping my interest this version lacked that grab, which is actually why i decided to read the original to see if it were any better.

anyway all comparisons aside, this book from what i read merely uses Poes version as a guide line, the main character Araby wasn't really a person i felt i could grow to like, she puts her family in danger for the sake of some guy named Elliot and she just seems so....immature?

I am not rating the story due to having not finished it, but what Griffin has made into a 300 novel Poe has surpassed in a possible 10 pages.

I love the concept of this book, so if I had a patron who was really into Poe or Steampunk, I would probably recommend it without hesitation. However, I feel that the main character is both flat and amazingly self-absorbed (interesting feat, that). The world is interesting, the action is very fast paced, but it's not particularly believable and the characters didn't sweep me up. Still, I wanted to know what would happen next and I appreciate good world building.

There are good things about this book -- but here are the things I just couldn't get my head around:

Dippy, drugged out girl -- fine.

Consumed with guilt -- well, maybe? But it's just never that convincing.

2 heartthrobs, 1 likable, 1 not -- who are always mysteriously appearing wherever the girl is whenever she's done with whatever she was doing. Is this meant to be part of the drugged out portrayal, so she has no sense of time? Or to emphasize her feelings of powerlessness?

Plague plague plaguey plague -- oooookay. You like Poe, we understand.

eh. It wasn't a bad book, but I find myself irritated beyond reason at the loose running plot. Perhaps if it were a movie I would like it more. It seems inevitable to me that there will be a sequel. Thank goodness I don't care enough about the characters to read it.

Okay, so this book was okay, but not great. The characters were likeable, for the most part, and the plot had potential, but the main character was in love with two guys, which, has totally been done, not original at all. Then there was the total cliffhanger. It cut off right as the plot was actually starting to resemble Edgar Allen Poe's story. Which was the main reason I read this book. Also, I got this book free from the Goodreads First Reads, so I felt I had too. All in all, the book is an okay read, if you like doom and gloom, but I wouldn't advise reading it. At least until the sequel comes out (trust me, there will be one), because then you can just jump into the next book. Which I might do. Probably not.

DNF at 43%

I’ve got some mixed feelings about Masque of the Red Death. On the one hand, it’s this beautiful, decaying steampunk world. This is a retelling, as you may have guessed, of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death” short story. It’s takes this devastating contagion and casts a spotlight on the masked faces of the selfish upper class dancing while the city burns, essentially.

But I think… I think I wanted this book to be something it wasn’t, which resulted in my explaining away a lot of it. Trying to make excuses. Trying to make it a better book than it was.

More than anything, I think Masque of the Red Death spent too much time telling me about the world Telling me Araby’s past. Telling me how she felt about Will or Elliott. This type of writing creates a bland palate, rather than richly painting a world that the reader can fall into. The richness of this plague-ridden steampunk work? There’s a lot of blank imagery I filled in with my own imagination. Even as we are told that there are mutant bats and the city is crumbling, we aren’t really shown the city.

Part of this is because we spend so much time in Araby’s thoughts. She’s not allowed to develop as a character and make a mark on the story, because she is constantly being held up as a resource to one of the other characters. Araby is less Araby and more… Finn’s sister. April’s friend. Elliott’s resource. Will’s provider. Her father’s daughter. Never is she left to develop herself and show what she wants or she feels, because Araby’s asides are caught in one of the flattest love triangles I’ve ever seen, and in memories of her family.

I’m not sure how best to address this greyscale presentation of the story. On one hand, things moved along just fine, but on the other hand… I kept asking myself, “Why?” Why did Elliott care about her, why was it so easy for her to do things. Why did people keep saving this otherwise unremarkable girl. Araby just… didn’t fit in this world. As a protagonist, she wasn’t very interesting, because she very rarely shared any opinions or passion.

While the trajectory of the story was fairly easy to guess, so little is revealed about it. It’s relatively cliche, although I wasn’t quite expecting the evolution of the Red Death itself. I felt like a lot more could have been developed to show the grotesquery of the world and that Araby herself could have reached for more information or to put things into motion. A lot of time was spent on Finn, the deceased twin who ultimately had no part to play in the story outside the impression he left on Araby and her parents. And while grief and mourning is important, his use never felt like that… just an obstacle to the love story. Ultimately, he ended up being an obstacle to the story in general, because he stole so much screen time for so little reward.

As a whole, Masque of the Red Death was an interesting mood read. There’s a volcano of potential waiting to erupt, edges of a story not quite refined enough to capture the reader. I love that this is a Poe retelling and I would read other ones like it, but not with any sense of urgency. It’s a good quick, casual read, but nothing to get overly excited about. One of those books you read, are fascinated by a few pretty passages, and then forget.½

Around page 50, I was talking to my sister about this book and telling her that this book better pick up soon or I might quit on it. (There's just way too many books in my stack for my to waste my time on a book I'm not enjoying). A little bit later, I was on page 103 and I knew I was going to be up until I finished the book. Somewhere in between, the action and story had caught up and got to going good and I was loving it. The mystery is so convoluted in this book. What is the plague? How did it come to be? Who can be trusted? Who can't be trusted? (And the answer to that question will surprise you). When I finished Masque of the Red Death, I was ready to start the next book. So I say give this book a try and STICK IT OUT! I know it starts off slow but it definitely picks up and is not the same old story that's being told over and over. It's new and refreshing.

Nope. Immediate bounce (on page 33), partly for reasons of world - it's post-apoc dystopic, but an amalgam of steampunk fashion and modern parlance that isn't sitting well with me - but mostly for reasons of style. Choppy paragraphs and ultra-quick pace aren't giving me any space to settle in, and the GAAF aesthetic is a little too much for me.

This was a disappointing sequel, made even more so, because I think it has a good story at its core, but the writing was in desperate need of tightening up. The first two-thirds of this book contains nothing important; Araby goes back and forth between which guy she likes more, deriding herself for having feelings for either of them. The group is on the run and trying to figure out their next move. Honestly, it wasn’t anything that could have been quickly summarized in a couple of pages. The last one hundred pages was actually quite interesting; it’s what I had expected the first book to touch on, actually, so it’s a shame this duology couldn’t have been put together to be one book, because I think that would have worked a lot better. Alas.

Araby shows great growth and comes into her own as a character. She is tired of relying on everyone else to solve her problems, so she takes the plunge and starts solving her own problems. Her parents also go through a similar change and start helping out, which was a nice change of pace. April is her wonderful self; her character didn’t need to change, and she didn’t. She’s still the girl who tries to make everything better and happy, even in tough circumstances. I really appreciated her as a foil for Araby’s character, and as a impetus for growth for Araby.

I could have done without the love triangle altogether; it kept getting in the way of the story and just wasn’t as compelling as it was in the first book. Everything felt forced, and maybe that was because Araby herself wasn’t sure of her feelings, but I just couldn’t get into it. Even at the end when all the conflict had resolved and they were free to move on and build new lives, I felt as though something was missing from the relationships.

The resolution itself was quite satisfying. I enjoyed the party with the different-colored rooms. I enjoyed them FINALLY confronting the prince. As I’ve said before, the last 100 pages is a wild ride, and if that were the whole of the book, this would have at least 4.5 stars. But, I don’t know if those final pages are enough to make me recommend the series as a whole to anyone. All put together, it was just okay. If it sounds like your thing, you might get some enjoyment out of it. I just wasn’t feeling it from this book at all.

Also posted on Purple People Readers.

I just adored it and want more!!!

This was a decent retelling of an Edgar Allen Poe story, but nothing spectacular. The brother sister connection/love thing has been over done and is something that always kind of weirded me out.

The doctors were not all that well developed, though they were creepy.

The house itself was very interesting and I wish that we got more of its history and that of the Ushers.

The writing and story itself were okay, with interesting parts, but overall, the story was underwhelming

This was a decent retelling of an Edgar Allen Poe story, but nothing spectacular. The brother sister connection/love thing has been over done and is something that always kind of weirded me out.

The doctors were not all that well developed, though they were creepy.

The house itself was very interesting and I wish that we got more of its history and that of the Ushers.

The writing and story itself were okay, with interesting parts, but overall, the story was underwhelming

Loved it! I stayed up half the night reading b/c I couldn't put it down!

More to come...

This was a huge hype book when it came out, so I was excited to (finally) pick up a copy and read it. I enjoy Edgar Allan Poe’s short story that this is loosely based upon and was interested to see what sort of world Griffin would create around that idea — especially one that would hold up for an entire novel and its sequel.

Masque of the Red Death is basically a post-apocalyptic dystopia rather loosely set in Victorian times, with some steampunk elements to it; for example, Araby and her friend April ride in steam-powered carriages, created because horses died from the plague that killed off most of the population in the city. While Poe’s short story focused on the Prince Prospero’s parties and how he locked everyone up to escape the plague, this story mostly focuses on outside Prince Prospero’s castle and what’s happening while he hides from the city’s problems. We get to briefly meet him and hear about him because April is his niece and Araby is the daughter of the scientist who invented a mask filtration system that allows the rich to go outside and survive.

Overall, I found this a quick, fun read. I was worried we were going to get into mushy romance territory at the beginning, but Araby’s romantic inclinations are actually well handled and further the tension and plot of the novel, which I very much appreciated. The characters are great — we get the superficial stuff at the beginning, but then things are revealed throughout the story to slowly reveal complex, interesting characters. Though this is kind of true for the main character, this is mostly true for the side characters and reflects Araby’s knowledge/impressions of them; for example, she thinks her mom is vapid and too nervous, but then we find out that there might be a good reason for that.

While this was a fast read for me, a lot of it didn’t feel particularly interesting. I think a bit too much time was set up on fleshing out just how depressing life and the city is post-plague, and while it’s important, I’m not sure that we needed to so much of the fluff and could have gone into more interesting developments. Although, I do understand that we learn along with Araby because she’s been fairly sheltered up to where we meet her in the book, I just felt like there wasn’t quite enough substance to hang onto, and what substance I was given was super interesting, so I wish there were more.

Again, I found this book fairly entertaining, but didn’t see much in it to be able to rave about it. It’s a solid story with fairly interesting characters, even if the main character is a bit too naive for my liking. It falls into the same basic tropes most young adult novels of this time did: love triangle, corrupt government, and rebelling factions. I’m still interested to see how the sequel brings some of the bits and pieces together, but this isn’t something I’m going to go out of my way to recommend to people. It’s fine if you like this sort of thing, and certainly enjoyable, but not a must-read.

Also posted on Purple People Readers.½

No matter what creatures people fear in the dead of night, in this city, violence is more likely to be carried out by men.
- Chapter 3

Violence is mindless. It doesn't listen to reason.
- Chapter 9

Everything is in ruins. A plague decimated the population. Those who are still alive, live in fear of catching the plague. Masks that protect people from catching it are terribly expensive and most people can't afford them. Whoever controls the masks, controls the city. Araby's father invented the masks, but now Prince Prospero controls their manufacture. There are forces in the city that want to change that. Araby goes from living her life trying to avoid reality and the pain of losing her brother to being involved with dangerous forces of rebellion. Araby doesn't know who to trust; even her father has not told her the whole truth. And now, there is a worse sickness, the Red Death.

This book is good, and I am reading the sequel now. I have to say that I think it should have been one book. The end of the first book didn't really solve anything at all. So, while I am counting these for my Halloween Bingo, I am waiting to finish the second book before I mark the square.

This is the second book after Masque of the Red Death. I finished it quickly. It was a good book, but nothing special. The ending was satisfying and there was plenty of action and suspense.

I read Masque of the Red Death and Dance of the Red Death as if they were one book for my free space in Halloween Bingo. Honestly, it probably should have been one book, but maybe that would be too imposing (at around 600 pages) for its intended audience.

I'm unfamiliar with the steampunk genre. I hadn't heard of it prior to reading this novel. I'm disappointed in Araby. She seems too weak and unsure. I'm used to the protagonist strengthening throughout the story. Araby makes little improvements throughout this book.

I am intrigued by the spark of a relationship between her and Elliott. However, I'm a little bored with the love triangle in many series now, and this is leaning towards yet another one.

I liked this story, but I'm undecided on whether I will venture into the next novel.

The end of Masque of the Red Death had me wanting more. I wasn’t disappointed with Dance of the Red Death.

So, character-wise, Araby annoyed me a little more in this book. She was stuck between figuring out who she liked, Elliott or Will. She couldn’t make up her damn mind. I just wanted to beat her with a stick, and tell her to stop going back and forth. Even though she can’t make a decision when it comes to guys, she constantly struggles with finding something to make her want the world to go on. Even in the darkest of moments, she keeps trying to find a cure. She may even have a few heroic qualities to her.

Elliott was even more grating in the sequel. He’s mean, sarcastic, and very good at being bossy. I guess that would make him an effective leader, but still he doesn’t have to be an ass about things. And Will, oh Will. I like that he’s not pushy like Elliott. He allows Araby to make decisions for herself and doesn’t force, or coerce, her actions.

This book basically follows the hunt for the cure. Araby must find her father, but there is mayhem happening in the streets. Children are disappearing, and people are just plain scared. I know one thing for sure, I’ve never hated the Prince more than I did in this book. He’s such an awful man. I thought Elliott exaggerated when he spoke of how vile that man is, but no, he wasn’t. We get to see firsthand his wickedness.

This is such a great conclusion. I wish we could get more of these characters, but overall, I was happy with how things ended.

3.5

It's been a long time since I've read Poe's version, but I enjoyed this retelling. It's every bit as gloomy and depressing as Poe's work.

The characters are great. There's so much more to them than meets the eye. Araby is full of grief, and refuses to allow herself any moments of happiness. Will is sweet despite his hard exterior as a bouncer. I wanted to dislike Elliott so bad. He comes off as a total d-bag, but he's a man of many layers.

Honestly, the first half of the book was lacking for me. Everything seems to be moving along very slowly, and there are parts that I felt are choppy. The world building is amazing. I felt as though I was in the plagued streets. The last quarter of the book was strong. There were moments of wtfery and shock.

I'm stoked for the sequel to come out. Thank goodness I don't have to wait long until the release date.

So far this is my surprise book of 2012. I loved the gothic, steampunk, alternate history setting. Araby is a beautiful, yet deeply disturbed girl living a life of wealth in a world of dispair. She goes out to the Debauchery Club and takes drugs to make her forget all the sad in her world, but does it really make her forget? Enter two good-looking and very different guys who each sweep her into reality in very different ways. I loved Will and I loved to hate Elliot. A recent standard in YA there is a pending rebellion, a struggle for power in a corrupt world, and there will be a sequel (one I will be anxious to read)!

So far this is my surprise book of 2012. I loved the gothic, steampunk, alternate history setting. Araby is a beautiful, yet deeply disturbed girl living a life of wealth in a world of dispair. She goes out to the Debauchery Club and takes drugs to make her forget all the sad in her world, but does it really make her forget? Enter two good-looking and very different guys who each sweep her into reality in very different ways. I loved Will and I loved to hate Elliot. A recent standard in YA there is a pending rebellion, a struggle for power in a corrupt world, and there will be a sequel (one I will be anxious to read)!

So far this is my surprise book of 2012. I loved the gothic, steampunk, alternate history setting. Araby is a beautiful, yet deeply disturbed girl living a life of wealth in a world of dispair. She goes out to the Debauchery Club and takes drugs to make her forget all the sad in her world, but does it really make her forget? Enter two good-looking and very different guys who each sweep her into reality in very different ways. I loved Will and I loved to hate Elliot. A recent standard in YA there is a pending rebellion, a struggle for power in a corrupt world, and there will be a sequel (one I will be anxious to read)!

This book never really appealed. I liked the dark, gothic feel of the book, but the plot was weak and sometimes confusing. As a heroine, Araby was rather weak and the love triangle just didn't feel real. In fact, I had no real connection with any of the characters. I will definitely not be looking for the sequel.

What is it with me lately, I keep getting books that end so abruptly??