Masque of The Red Death

Masque Of The Red Death

by Bethany Griffin

Synopsis:

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:

This book was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s short story which bears the same name but having never read the short story that didn’t help me too much.  All I knew was the short story was about the plague.  So I guess I was expecting a story that was dark and maybe even tragic and I wasn’t disappointed.  At the start I wasn’t pulled in immediately but that changed quickly and I couldn’t put it down.  Araby lives in a world of dead and decay, where every day to not contract the deadly weeping Sickness.  Dead bodies are everywhere and air-filtering masks are necessary to avoid contracting this illness but only affordable for the rich.  A domineering Prince rules the city from afar and lives apart from the threats that exist within the city.  Araby spends her time in the Debauchery Club trying to forget and encounters two very different but equally mysterious boys. But the city holds even more mystery and there are rumors of an uprising and then the attacks begin. I liked the world that Griffin has created-part gothic, part dystopia.  I loved how even when I had my set opinions about each character but then the author would manage to change everything and all of a sudden my opinion was the exact opposite.  When starting this book I had thought it was just one book and not a series but sadly I was very mistaken.  But even though there will be a second book the end was very very abrupt and it had me feeling a little lost and kind of agitated.  There is this huge build up and then the story just stops.  The second book comes out in April 2013 if I had known that in the beginning I might have wait to read this book till then so I was not left hanging.

Anna Dressed in Blood

Anna Dressed In Blood

Kendare Blake

Synopsis:

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

My Thoughts:

Not going to lie I picked up this book solely based on the cover.  I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. I thought the book would be from Anna’s point of view based on the title and some kind of horror story again because of the title.  What I actually got was a surprisingly good read and not even close to your typical ghost horror story.  Cas is actually the main character in this book; he was easy to relate to, but at the same time he was believably male. Since his father’s murder by a vicious ghost, Cas and his mom have been travelling around the US (and Canada too!) killing any ghosts that have been harming humans.  Someday he hopes to avenge his father’s death but before that he has one final test. A spook to rival all spooks, a powerful and wicked goddess of death. . . Anna Korlov. But as Cas founds out Anna is not at all what she seems. Instead she is both a murderess and a victim all at the same time. I liked the writing in this story I was able to clearly see how the relationships of the characters changed and developed and the best part was it was believable.   I was captivated from the very first page and thrilled to discovery that there were two different mysteries not just one and an amazing twist that I did not see coming at all!  I thought the book was more gory than actually frightening. I would say if you’re squeamish beware but don’t let that stop you from picking up this book.  It was amazing and so very different!