Review: Dance of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

Dance of the Red Death

Author: Bethany Griffin
Series: Masque of the Red Death #2
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Genre: YA Science Fiction/Steampunk
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Release Date: June 11, 2013
Source: Mid-Columbia Libraries
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Synopsis from Goodreads:

Bethany Griffin continues the journey of Araby Worth in Dance of the Red Death—the sequel to her teen novel Masque of the Red Death.

In Dance of the Red Death, Araby’s world is in shambles—betrayal, death, disease, and evil forces surround her. She has no one to trust. But she finds herself and discovers that she will fight for the people she loves, and for her city.

Her revenge will take place at the menacing masked ball, though it could destroy her and everyone she loves…or it could turn her into a hero.

With a nod to Edgar Allan Poe, Bethany Griffin concludes her tragic and mysterious Red Death series with a heroine that young adult readers will never forget.

My Review:

I’ve got to say, I wasn’t a huge fan of the first book in this series, Masque of the Red Death. I just didn’t connect with the characters and I never truly felt like the world was real. The second book in the series was better, but still not one of my favorites.

It starts off right where Masque of the Red Death ends. Araby, Elliot, and their gang of followers are in the airship escaping from the city after Malcontent’s armies drove them out. Quick recap: Prince Prospero is the bad guy. Malcontent is the other bad guy. Elliot is trying to start a revolution to overthrow Prospero while also keeping Malcontent out of power. Okay we’re back. So they ran to regroup before going back into the city. April, Araby’s best friend and Elliot’s sister, has been infected with the contagion. The course of action that makes the most sense is to return to the city and find Araby’s father, a world-renowned scientist who might have the cure. Does Elliot want to do that? No. He wants to go on a suicide mission to Prospero’s castle to get weapons. Does this make any sense? No. No it doesn’t. Some leader he is.

Sorry. I can’t stand Elliot. I hated that he was a love interest for Araby. Elliot is mean, possessive, and completely untrustworthy. He even told Araby in the first book not to trust him. Naturally he also expects her to do everything he says. I felt like the author tried to make readers sympathetic to Elliot in this book. She tried to make it seem like Elliot’s feelings for Araby grew to something real. And maybe they did. But I wasn’t buying it. I never believed in him. I hated that he was leading the revolution and honestly at times wondered if Malcontent would be a better option. If you’ve read the book, you know how crazy that is. (He’s pretty much a deranged lunatic.) I just hated Elliot. There were so many things he did during this book that made me want to rip the pages out. But what made me want to do that even more was the fact that Araby continued to put up with him!

I talked about how weak I felt Araby was in my review of the first book. For the most part, in this book, she’s the same way. She is struggling with the fact that her father might be a mass murderer. It felt the same as her struggle with the fact that her brother died. Araby wasn’t the type of character that can overcome difficulty in her life. She doesn’t know how to deal with it. She puts up with Elliot’s crap and is indecisive over her feelings towards Will. She is struggling to deal with Will’s betrayal even though she knows that if she were in his position she would have done the same thing. There is a pivotal moment where she FINALLY decides to do something she believes in. After this, she does start to change, but she still just never felt genuine to me. Plus it took way too long for her to reach this pivotal point in her life.

Here’s what I liked about this book: We get a lot more world-building. We find out how the contagion started and how the Red Death began. After reading this book, I felt like I had a lot better understanding about this world that Bethany Griffin created. I am however, still confused on what time period we are in. It’s never explained and it’s something that I would like to know.

Along with the world-building we get to know Prince Prospero more. Where he came from. What his role in the plague was. We discover just how dark and dangerous he really is. He was painted in a very dark light in this book that made you shudder anytime a character was in the same room as him.  

This book was much faster-paced than the first one. There were a lot more action scenes, which I enjoy, but not only that, the action scenes felt more realistic in this book. My heart sped up during certain moments and I was sitting there going “omg omg what’s going to happen?” The first book didn’t do that for me, so I was happy this one did.

In addition to the action being better, the romance was as well. I could actually feel the feels. (Feel the feels? Yeah, I’m sticking with it.) I loved Will and I loved watching that relationship grow and develop. Even though I hated Elliot, the romance between him and Araby did provoke actual feeling at times. I definitely felt Araby’s confusion over her feelings for him vs. her feelings for Will. That being said, I didn’t think the love triangle was done very well. It was so obvious to me the whole time who she was going to end up with and I didn’t think it served a purpose in the story.

The book wrapped up nicely. There are only the two books in the series (I think, correct me if I’m wrong) and I didn’t feel like I was left with any unanswered questions. I hate when authors end a series and leave the reader to “interpret” what happened. No. If I want to interpret my own ending, I’ll write my own book. I want to read exactly what happens to the characters. Rant over. So Bethany Griffin got major points for tying everything up neatly.

Overall the book was okay. It was enjoyable. I was entertained while reading it, but it certainly wasn’t one of my favorites. If I hadn’t read this book, I wouldn’t be agonizing over what happened to the characters which is never really a good sign. If you’re looking for an interesting book to read, but don’t have a lot of time to commit, then this might be a good option for you. It’s easy enough to pick up and put down so if you’re someone who has a super busy life and can’t afford to stay up until 5am reading, then you might enjoy this book. I wouldn’t say I recommend it, but I don’t not recommend it. It’s just one of those books that I feel meh about. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it. That’s really vague isn’t it? I know all you readers have read books like this. You understand right? Happy reading all!