Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Review: 'Carnival of Souls' by Melissa Marr

Carnival of Souls
THE DETAILS:
Pages: 306
Genre: Teen Fiction, Fantasy
Release Date: September 2012
Publisher: Harper Collins
RRP: $19.99

THE DESCRIPTION:
The carnival pulsed in the centre of The City – a swirl of masked pleasure and violence. Music played constantly as the dancers demonstrated their flexibility. At times it was a glorious cacophony. Jugglers and fire-twirlers showed their skills in time to the music. All around the carnival, transactions of varying degrees of legality and ethical questionability were happening. The City wasn't a world that seemed beautiful to everyone. It was their world, though…

MY THOUGHTS:
My expectations of this book were a little high... The word "Carnival" is in the title, there's a mask on the front (I love masks) and I liked everything else I've read by the author. I've been itching to read this ever since I received it and had to restrain my self from opening it until closer to release date (I received it quite early). It's now late October... And, I know I've got you wondering... did it meet my expectations?

'Carnival of Souls' had a very complicated story-line. It was the kind of story you couldn't really follow unless you were invested in the characters emotionally. Thankfully the characters were pretty easy to become emotionally invest yourself in -From the end of the prologue I was enthralled- And, I wanted to know what was going to happen to these characters. I wanted to know who these fictional beings were.

There was so much going on in the story. There was an age old feud between races of beings (or rather types),  there was a battle going on to see who was the most powerful and there are people pretending to be what they aren't (And, people not knowing who/what they really are). All of that, And, relationships. I think that's one of the things I appreciated about the novel though; nothing was dumbed down.

I felt the characters were well written. While I can't really picture what any of them look like in my head, I thought that I understood the characters motives well and knew their personalities. This is one aspect of the story that I felt trumped all the others. This is what I liked most.

The one thing that I didn't like about this book was the lack of detail. There was no real atmosphere or setting going on and I have no idea what the characters look like. There may have been descriptions, but I fear I may have skimmed over them too quickly (fuelled by my curiosities). I thought that 'Carnival of Souls' seemed a strange name for the book, because even though one of the characters constantly mentions going to the 'Carnival', none of the text indicates that that's what it is. Maybe it's some educated metaphorical meaning that links to a mythology of some kind? I don't know.

Overall, I gave this novel 4.5 stars out of 5. I didn't want to give too much away about the story (I fear I already may have) which is why I didn't involve any of the in depth discussions I really wanted to about the characters and events in 'Carnival of Souls'. I really enjoyed the story and can't wait for the sequel (Please be there a sequel. Surely there is no way that this would be a lone novel). The only thing I didn't like was the vagueness on the detail aspect... I think people who enjoyed other books by this author will enjoy this one.

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Natalie

2 comments:

Kapri (Book Fanatics) said...

I'm glad you liked this one. I'm excited to read it and have fairly high expectations, too. It looks good, although the lack of detail seems annoying.

Mel@Thedailyprophecy said...

I'm glad that this book met your high expectations! Even when there aren't so many details, I like the sound of the story. The complex storyline and the characters seem to be enough for me to enjoy this book :) Great review!