Carnival of Souls , by Melissa Marr

Hardcover, 306 pages

Published September 4th 2012 by HarperCollins (first published September 1st 2012)

ISBN

0061659282 (ISBN13: 9780061659287)

edition language

English

original title

Carnival of Souls

url

http://enterthecarnival.com/

characters

Aya, Kaleb, Mallory, Belias

 

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.

From Melissa Marr, bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series and "Graveminder," comes a brand-new tale of lush secrets, dark love, and the struggle to forge one's own destiny.

 

My Review

It was a weird one this story, but none the less it was a really interesting story because you could see that there was so much within the pages to discover and to read. I think what I liked about the story was that the opening was attractive in the sense that it captivated you and made you want to read on to see what was happening and how it would all turn out. Its obvious that the world is a completely different format there but also that its not just one world, there are two and everything is torn up in so many different ways and directions. We can see that there is a world where Daimons exist and there is a world where the humans and the witches live and none of them seem to want to work together which is where the engaging plot seems to interelate with the story. The story starts with a mother going to a witch for help, a mother who wants someone to protect her daughter from a fate that seems to equate to death. The witch agrees to the deal but only if she understands that he has complete control over the daughters life, that he will become her father and her guardian until she is 18 and until she is 18 anyone who tries to harm her will be removed. You can see that the conditions are tough but you also see that the mother has a deep amount of love for her daughter, so much that she would rather loose the guardianship of her daughter than leave her for the fates that are behind her.

 

When we next encouter the three, the mother is gone and it is just adam and mallory (the daughter) and they seem to be on the run, constantly. Adam is training her for something big and she is clearly aware of the danger of the daimons and that he is a witch, so she knows that not everything is what it seems. But she does not know what she is, that she too is a daimon and she is infact missing in the daimon realms and is wanted back, and she is wanted back by the person who everyone else seems to fear for some reason or another. But she is not the only daughter that this person has, for there is another, except she is an outcast, or well she would be an outcast if they truly knew what she was, for she is the half witch half daimon and that is a disgraceful thing to be apparently. Aya though is tough and she wants to rule the world, not to make it worse though, but to make it better. she wants to rule it so that she can change the consequences and the actions of the world, so that she can make things for the better and make people see that its not just about men ruling over women and that the only role women have in life is to bread the future heirs of the males. she wants things to be equal and that is why she is showing them that she is just as tough as the men by participating in the contest that is a survive or die situation.

 

I admit that the book did become a little confusing in some places because there seemed to be a lot going on in the respects that you had the two worlds and about, 7 main characters and it was just a lot to keep up with and to understand in so many ways. But this just made you more determined to read on and to under it a little more, because you felt that it all had to interelate somehow and it did. Aya and mallory it turns out are actually related by blood in that they both have the same father but a different mother. Adam has also gone missing and his sister wants to us mallory for her own personal gain. she has no interest it seems in the safety of her or her daughter as long as the outcomes are bent to her wayn and her format and she is doing whatever it is that she needs to do. it really does have a lot going on within it but its an engaging write and it makes the reader really read on. You can see that there is potential for the series to develop into something so more self engaging and powerful. it really reflects a lot and I just enjoyed the whole story once I knew what it was that was actually happening.

   

My rating