Review: Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

 Everything is in ruins.
A devastating plague has decimated the population, and those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles around them.
So what does Araby Worth have to live for?
Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery makeup . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.
But in the depths of the club--in the depths of her own despair--Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club, and Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.
And Araby may find not just something to live for, but something to fight for--no matter what it costs her.

I was expecting this book to be really good because of all the great reviews it had and I am happy to say that Masque of the Red Death exceeded my expectations. I finished it within two hours and became horribly depressed when I realized the next book wouldn’t be out for another year. Yeah.

Araby was surprisingly easy to relate to and I really enjoyed the relationships she had with her friends. The love triangle in this book didn’t bother me as much as most do, but I was quite upset with the ending because things didn’t turn out the way I expected (though I suppose that can be a good thing). Will and Elliot were complete opposites but there were things I liked in both of them. I think that girls/guys who like the “bad boy” will root for team Elliot otherwise team Will is where it’s at.

The idea of a worldwide epidemic is a frequently used one, but Bethany Griffin made the plague more interesting to read about by making it something humans had created. I think of this book as a steampunk-ish dystopian with a dash of romance and adventure. There wasn’t really anything I disliked about the book and I’m anxiously waiting for the second book. 4.5 Stars!