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| Carnival of Souls #1 |
Rating: 3/5
In a city of daimons, rigid class lines separate the powerful from the power-hungry. And at the heart of The City is the Carnival of Souls, where both murder and pleasure are offered up for sale. Once in a generation, the carnival hosts a deadly competition that allows every daimon a chance to join the ruling elite. Without the competition, Aya and Kaleb would both face bleak futures--if for different reasons. For each of them, fighting to the death is the only way to try to live.
All Mallory knows of The City is that her father--and every other witch there--fled it for a life in exile in the human world. Instead of a typical teenage life full of friends and maybe even a little romance, Mallory scans quiet streets for threats, hides herself away, and trains to be lethal. She knows it's only a matter of time until a daimon finds her and her father, so she readies herself for the inevitable. While Mallory possesses little knowledge of The City, every inhabitant of The City knows of her. There are plans for Mallory, and soon she, too, will be drawn into the decadence and danger that is the Carnival of Souls.
This book was like walking into the supermarket and buying
your favourite flavour of Pringles - for me, Sour Cream and Onion - only to get
home and open it to find that it's half full; it's disappointing but at the
same time you still get to experience half the deliciousness. And that's
exactly how I felt reading this book, the blurb promised so much awesomeness
but once I opened it and start reading I found it just didn't quite hit all the
marks.
The world-building: I love it when an author gets world-building right because it makes a book all kinds of awesome. Unfortunately, Marr didn't quite always get it right. The concept was really interesting and well thought out but there were a lot of things I felt I just didn't get. I think the main issue was there was a lot of telling and what was being told was pitted with holes. How does the world of The City connect with our world? What exactly are the daimons? Werewolves? Shifters? Something completely different? What are the Watchers? And what on earth do the blue masks do? Seriously, did I miss that because I understand red and black? Just to name a few. That being said the parts that made sense were amazing, the world of the The City is so rich and colourful and I was left wanting to know more and understand how it works better. There was only one other gripe I had and that was the use of the word breeder. I got that it was part of the world building as daimons are canines, and as such the language that builds their hierarchy and their lives reflects this but I couldn't help but feel offended about how it was used at times. It connotes a patriarchal society where women are viewed as lesser beings then men and are there to look after the house and have babies. Now don't get me wrong I'm not die-hard feminist but breeders is just an awful term especially when there weren't any female characters who were rising above the system (I'm not counting Aya because nowhere does it state that that is one of the issues she wants to change).
The characters: I can't say I became too attached to the main characters. Mallory was almost non-existent, and when she did feature I was unsure who she was. On the one hand I was being told she was a good fighter and on the other I was being shown that she had no clue what was going on or what to do. In one fight scene she bumbled around and had no clue what she was meant to be doing, which is not the mark of someone taught to fight. I also didn't really connect with Kaleb and Aya. The thing is they were well written and fleshed out. Kaleb was far more than a fighter and an assassin, and Aya was, well, she was pretty much just a women seeking power in the naive hope she could change the world by herself. The one character that I loved and I hope will be featured more in the next book is Zevi. He was one of those lovable characters who have so much strength and courage.
So this is my half full pack of Pringles, left with the feeling of being cheated something truly special. I do look forward to reading the next in this series and hope that it leaves me feeling more satisfied than this did.
The world-building: I love it when an author gets world-building right because it makes a book all kinds of awesome. Unfortunately, Marr didn't quite always get it right. The concept was really interesting and well thought out but there were a lot of things I felt I just didn't get. I think the main issue was there was a lot of telling and what was being told was pitted with holes. How does the world of The City connect with our world? What exactly are the daimons? Werewolves? Shifters? Something completely different? What are the Watchers? And what on earth do the blue masks do? Seriously, did I miss that because I understand red and black? Just to name a few. That being said the parts that made sense were amazing, the world of the The City is so rich and colourful and I was left wanting to know more and understand how it works better. There was only one other gripe I had and that was the use of the word breeder. I got that it was part of the world building as daimons are canines, and as such the language that builds their hierarchy and their lives reflects this but I couldn't help but feel offended about how it was used at times. It connotes a patriarchal society where women are viewed as lesser beings then men and are there to look after the house and have babies. Now don't get me wrong I'm not die-hard feminist but breeders is just an awful term especially when there weren't any female characters who were rising above the system (I'm not counting Aya because nowhere does it state that that is one of the issues she wants to change).
The characters: I can't say I became too attached to the main characters. Mallory was almost non-existent, and when she did feature I was unsure who she was. On the one hand I was being told she was a good fighter and on the other I was being shown that she had no clue what was going on or what to do. In one fight scene she bumbled around and had no clue what she was meant to be doing, which is not the mark of someone taught to fight. I also didn't really connect with Kaleb and Aya. The thing is they were well written and fleshed out. Kaleb was far more than a fighter and an assassin, and Aya was, well, she was pretty much just a women seeking power in the naive hope she could change the world by herself. The one character that I loved and I hope will be featured more in the next book is Zevi. He was one of those lovable characters who have so much strength and courage.
So this is my half full pack of Pringles, left with the feeling of being cheated something truly special. I do look forward to reading the next in this series and hope that it leaves me feeling more satisfied than this did.
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