Overall not a bad book, but could have been better. Some of the imagery in this book is really quite interesting, the fashion, the Debauchery Club, the worldbuilding in general.Īnd Araby. I have never read the original Poe story, so I don't really know what I expected going in. I guess that could be a mild spoiler, but there you have it.īottom Line: So much potential for a really awesome story. The blurb says Will is the proprietor of the club, but he is just a worker there. Made zero sense to have those two people together.Īlso, attention to detail is lacking. The romance (because it is YA, so there IS a romance) is very odd, and didn't flow at all. To be fair, it is a series, but there have been other series' that have given me that climactic moment while reading.Īraby is fickle and vapid. I didn't get that moment of heart racing, palms sweating, 'Oh my gosh, this is it!' that happens a lot of the time. It feels like I read the book, and nothing really interesting happened. The story itself was all over the place, and I was left with far more questions than answers. I love the gothic feel and how the steampunk touches are a) just touches and b) in the background. Some of the imagery she creates is great.

Griffin's derivative work doesn't share any of that depth. Poe's original is about the inevitability of death, the arrogance of the rich. In fact, all this book really borrows from the Poe original is names, and a basic plot device (sickness). Why did I skim it? Because Griffin's work was very incoherent, and I had to check if I was missing something vital with not having read the original work. I still haven't really read it, but I did skim it. However, before I got halfway through this book, I went online and tried to find the original story. I have read a handful of Poe's works, but The Masque of the Red Death wasn't one of them. This review can also be seen at Written Permission - A Reading and Writing Blogįirst off, before I started this book, I hadn't read the Poe original.

The Fall by Bethany Griffin