Review: Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

Series: Masque of the Red Death #1
Author Info: Website | Goodreads
Published: April 24, 2012
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Pages: 319

Age Group: Young Adult
Format I Own: Hardcover
Rating: 3.5/5

It may come as no surprise that the first things that drew me to this book were the name and the title. It instantly seemed like a nice dark/gothic non-horror novel that would be right up my alley. And then when I read the summary of what it was about, I knew I had to have it as soon as it came out. So I had extremely high expectations of this book. Unfortunately it did not deliver.

I'm definitely not saying it was a bad book, I just feel like my expectations were so high and that's why I feel a little disappointed but I still did enjoy this book. Just not as much as I'd hoped. It started out great, the way the world and surroundings were subscribed set a dark atmosphere to the story which I loved. Plus there's glitter. And I do love glitter. But quickly after that the story was only mediocre. Boring is not the word for it, I never once felt bored while reading it. But there also wasn't anything that made me really want to keep reading as much as I can to see what happens next. Perhaps I'm stupid but I was questioning what the main plot was about for about the first half of this book. Yes there's a sickness that plaguing the world, and Araby and her friend April get all glittered up and go to the Debauchery Club, but is that all there is to the story? I later realize that answer is no.

The climax was great though. It drew me into the book much more, and even made me decide that I probably will read the sequel when that comes out, because I am very interested to see what happens next. And perhaps I will enjoy that book as much as I hoped to enjoy this one. And maybe there will be more glitter, although I'm really doubting that.

Even though I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would, I still would recommend it because it was a good read. I just had this book so high on my list of books that I wanted to read, that I was expecting it to be a favorite.