TBR Challenge Review: Masque Of The Red Death by Bethany Griffin

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Loosely based  on the Edgar Allan Poe’s story, this novel explores a world decimated by plague and the living death those left behind endure. Our passage through this world is the musings of Araby worth, a privileged citizen who has the financial means to party her nights away and a mask that protects her from the plague swirling through the air.

I was intrigued by the concept of this story and frankly fell totally in love with the cover but I struggled through the narrative of this book. Araby was not a character I really cared about. She is selfish and self absorbed and though she lacks the courage to end her struggles permanently, she indulges in drugs that numb her to the world.

The only thing that takes Araby out of her stupor is the memories of how she was the cause of her brothers death, and two very different boys: Elliot and Will ,who are able to stimulate her somewhat from her stupor. On the one hand Griffin truly captures the essence of  a world on the brink of extermination, but there is a definite lack of light or hope in the story that made it hard to read. I don’t expect characters to be perfect, in fact i often learn a lot about myself from challenging characters but Araby was no different than the other hopeless masses she moves around. Maybe that’s the point but I couldn't really connect with anyone in the novel and have no interest in the other books in the series.