Okay, so I definitely finished this book in around eight and a half hours, starting the day I bought it (Monday) and finishing it yesterday (Tuesday). It's been a long time since I've finished a book that quickly, but I couldn't put it down even if I had tried. Holy crap, this book was amazing. Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe, MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH by Bethany Griffin is dark, risque, and elegant. Let's talk about it.
The narrator is Araby Worth, a young adult who is struggling to deal with the loss of her twin brother partly to the contagion killing the people and partly to murder. The contagion is nasty. It's a massive plague that covers its victims in pussing bruises and sores, and eventually it kills them. Araby is both lucky and unlucky in that her father is the scientist that started the contagion but also has the ability to fight it off. To protect against the airborn disease, they wear porcelain masks, modeled after dolls, to cover their faces and filter the diseased air. The rich can afford them no problem; the poor are not so lucky. Araby, who was once poor, meets a man named Will who is lower class and is taking care of his two younger siblings. Araby begins to fall in love with him, but I feel that it is mostly because his younger siblings, Elise and Henry, remind her of her and her lost brother Finn, and she needs to be close to those reminders again. I say this because their circumstances are a bit awkward, and there's a love triangle. I have to admit, I am a little tired of the oh-so-popular love triangle thing. I mean, let's face it, it would actually suck to be the one stuck in the middle of a love triangle. Let me know if you feel any differently.
So anyways, there's Will and his family which is so much better than Araby's minus the threat of the disease, and then there's Elliott. Elliott is April's brother, and April is Araby's best friend. I don't really like April, nor do I usually like Elliott, though he sometimes performs kind gestures. Elliott is trying to revolt against his uncle, the evil Prince Prospero. Yes, the names are a bit odd in this book. I have to say that one thing I DID like about the love triangle thing is that I didn't really have to pick a side. I don't know if Bethany Griffin intended it this way, but while I do favour Will SLIGHTLY more than Elliott, it's only slightly, and if she picked Elliott I wouldn't be all heartbroken. I like that. I don't like when the author is trying to force you to get all invested in this love triangle drama because I wouldn't want to be in real life and I therefore do not want to be in a book! Sorry, little rant there.
So aside from the love triangle, the book is so wonderful it's hard for me to even begin listing reasons why. I honestly am at a loss for words. I guess the first thing is the time period, though I am still a bit confused on when that is. The thing that confuses me is that they wear period clothing with a seductive twist; like, the clothes seem to come out of the late 1800's, but they are low cut and the skirts are short. Now, Araby tells you that they wore this even before the disease, though the clothes are more handy now that the disease is around, so it automatically makes my mind go "Okay, they're from the 1800's." But then they have all of this modern technology, and my mind goes all "What??" So I have no idea when this book takes place, at all. BUT that's part of why it's so great, because it's mixing old fashion (making it all hot) with modern things. It makes the atmosphere of the book really romantic, in the gothic idea of romance.
I think the other reason why I love it is the obvious diversity between upper class and lower class (Araby sees both intimately), but as a reader, after experiencing both, I wasn't drawn towards wanting to be a part of the upper class. Despite the disease, despite the lack of food and money, being poor was still better when it is compared to how much Araby and her friends' lives suck. They have a total lack of freedom that they can in no way control and they all get themselves into so many messes that the poor manage to stay out of...Honestly, call me Oliver Twist.
The book ends in a bit of a cliffhanger, still stuck in a bit of a love triangle but not so much of one and with everyone's lives at risk. Oh, and a new disease, The Red Death, has struck out. Oh, wondering what will happen haunts me. That leads me to the final thing I'm going to mention as something I liked. I really loved how the masks they wear made things so risque. Like a shirt or pants, removing the mask seems like a huge revelation of one's self. At one point in the book, Araby even describes an R-rated scene where she sees a couple in the bar having sex, and she mentions how even removing your masks to kiss has become a higher act of intimacy than having sex in public. That was a shocking moment while I was reading along, let me tell you. Was NOT expecting that with my morning cereal.
So anyways, I definitely recommend this as the next book for anyone to read. It's dark and dreary and awesome, and totally worth it. And I challenge any of you to finish it in less than eight and a half hours. Go!
-Victoria
Oh, and P.S.:
I thought this was really awesome. You'll know what it means when you've read the book.
Happy reading! :)
Source for cover: http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=masque+of+the+red+death+bethany+griffin+chapters&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=682&tbm=isch&tbnid=hx4ZDEyoTGqf0M:&imgrefurl=http://glass-of-wine.blogspot.com/2012/04/masque-of-red-death-by-bethany-griffin.html&docid=yqeIbQ1eCR5HiM&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpYoAzeXSDocF79PoVsamOAYDJQawzI0FsO8nMt9DwEA10Lx68tD3vsV7m9Mpl4aut0wNTHcdHFXzFYG-Z8HV7cucWrNyw0vDDfnNskGN0cBjDjfImsfwVMX7sJbgLm77YXBFk_lk4mzbo/s1600/12924275.jpg&w=314&h=475&ei=OEQZUMHwFoLc6wHEtoDACQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=181&vpy=114&dur=2657&hovh=276&hovw=182&tx=121&ty=141&sig=110521532527818361811&page=1&tbnh=149&tbnw=108&start=0&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:69
Source for 2nd image: http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=masque+of+the+red+death+by+bethany+griffin&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=682&tbm=isch&tbnid=JWVZL0nsYH9U2M:&imgrefurl=http://www.bethanygriffin.com/masque.html&docid=ZNTn4aMZfgdfKM&imgurl=http://www.bethanygriffin.com/pageimages/masquecard_back.jpg&w=778&h=650&ei=-koZUIu1MILq6wH6sIGIBA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=187&vpy=152&dur=515&hovh=205&hovw=246&tx=137&ty=115&sig=110521532527818361811&page=1&tbnh=154&tbnw=184&start=0&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:71
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