Release date: September 4, 2012
Carnival of Souls straddles two worlds, and follows several
characters throughout the story. Mallory lives in the human world, was raised
by her mother (who eventually left), and witch stepfather, who is overly
protective and teaches her how to fight to protect herself from daimons, who
Mallory was raised to believe are evil. In the other world, The City, Kaleb and
Aya are daimons who are taking part in a fighting competition where the winner
will have a chance to move up to a higher class and a better life. Kaleb and
Aya are each fighting for their own reasons.
I enjoyed Carnival of Souls; I’ve never been the biggest fan
of books that switch narratives, but Melissa Marr had already made me a fan
with her Wicked Lovely series. The thing I need the most is to care enough
about each character to want to read from their perspective, and Carnival of
Souls definitely drew me in. I was especially drawn in by life in The City, the
class systems, the different kinds of daimons, as well as the fighting match.
You might say it has a little Hunger Games in terms of the competition where
it’s basically kill your opponent or have them surrender so you can move on,
but it’s distinct enough to stand on its own without comparison to Hunger Games
or even Throne of Glass, which was a recent read that involved a fighting
competition.
What was most interesting was learning what Kaleb and Aya
were after, what they were willing to do to gain it, and how their stories
eventually came to intertwine. While I did find The City a very interesting
place to be, I was a little confused sometimes by the distinction between the
class systems and trying to figure out if overall it was a relatively happy
place to live or if it was oppressive. Also, I couldn’t quite figure out if The
City’s ruler, Marchiosas, was good, bad, or something in between, but I’m
leaning towards the latter. I also wish Marr had given a little more
description in terms of what her creatures look like, because when I read a
name for a type of creature I had to figure out of it looked human like or
creature like. However, this wasn’t an issue that necessarily threw me out of
the novel.
Initially I thought the story would mostly follow Mallory,
but I think the focus was more on the characters from The City. Mallory has a
lot to come to terms with regarding her father and certain things she finds out
about how he’s chosen to protect her, but she does meet and interact with
Kaleb, who can travel between the worlds. However, Mallory is unaware that his
is a daimon. There is no love triangle (refreshing), and Kaleb and Mallory have
an instant attraction, which is especially strong on Kaleb’s part because he
recognizes that Mallory is not exactly human and has a stronger connection to
him than she knows. I will say that when Kaleb’s intense feelings come out I
found it a little unbelievable because Mallory and Kaleb still only barely knew
each other, but I think Mallory’s reaction to his intenseness was believable,
so there is a balance there. There is also a romantic angle between Aya and her
ex-fiancé Belias, who have a very complicated relationship.
There were times where I wished Mallory would hurry up and learn
the truths she was supposed to learn; I kept feeling like that’s what the story
was driving towards only to come up short, but since this is a book one, I know
things will progress in the sequel. The interweaving storylines and
relationships between the characters was very interesting, and I look forward
to continuing the series.
Carnival of Souls get 3.5 out of five.
