Carnival of Souls (edition 2012)

Mallory has lived her life in the human world, not knowing that she's a daimon, raised by a witch on the run from the City, a parallel world in which magic and shapeshifters are commonplace. Her adoptive father Adam tries to keep her safe, but daimons from the city are after Mallory--she's the daughter of Marchosias, who rules over the City, and Marchosias wants her back. Kaleb, a hunter sent to kill or retrieve her, finds himself in trouble when he falls for her instead.

This one was surprisingly tough to get through--I felt like the set-up wasn't explained clearly or early enough to put the story on firm footing. The dynamics of the City are really interesting once they're laid out, but the reader is left foundering for a few chapters before the story finds its footing. Seems to be part of a larger story. ( )

Meh. Confused me a bit. Somehow it felt like a sequel though it doesn't seem to be one... ( )

As a reader of many of Melissa Marr's novels, I wanted to give her newest a try. It was difficult to get into, just trying to get the world set up in my imagination. However, once that was established I couldn't get enough of this story. The story is set in a similar world as her Wicked Lovely series, but this one deals with witches and daimons. ( )

I've been a Melissa Marr fan since Wicked Lovely, though I admit that I've gotten way behind, having missed reading several of her more recent books. This one, though, I simply knew that I had to listen to, because James Martsters, so I made time. Melissa Marr's newest differs quite a bit from her Wicked Lovely series, but shares the dark romance and gritty world building that I enjoyed so much in those books.

Mallory has been raised knowing that daimons and witches exist, that her father, Adam, is a witch. Because of something he stole from the daimon ruler, she and Adam move constantly, and she's never had the chance to get close to anyone but him. What the reader knows and Mallory does not is that what Adam Stole is Mallory, the daughter of the daimon ruler, Marchosias. She is a daimon, but has been trained how to kill them, tutored on the use of firearms.

Witches and daimons do not get along. They fought wars over The City, and the daimons won, thanks to the leadership of Marchosias. The witches live hidden in the human world; the daimons live in the demon world, comprised of The City and the Untamed Lands. The City is dark, violent, sordid, and built around a rigid social hierarchy. In an effort to provide the slightest chance of social mobility to his citizens, Marchosias hosts a competition, wherein daimons can sign up to battle, the winner obtaining high rank and a position in the government. It's rather like The Hunger Games, only made up of a series of individual battles during a long span of time, and the battles do have the option of ending in forfeiture, though forfeiting, for those in the lower castes, ends in fates worse than death.

The story opens with Mallory, in the throes of her first real crush upon a boy named Kaleb. Reality strikes a blow when her dad announces that they have to move yet again. However, she runs into Kaleb unexpectedly before the move and they bond. What she does't know is that Kaleb is a Cur, the lowest of the daimons, and that he is fighting in the competition in pursuit of higher social status for himself and his pack mate. Even more, Kaleb has been contracted to murder Mallory, and he has been befriending her to that end. Their romance, while initially disgustingly saccharine recovers itself in Mallory's sane reactions to knowledge when she obtains it. Though I do feel bad for Kaleb's status and the life he's had to live, I still cannot like him because of how he behaves. Mallory, again, I sympathize with, but feel no real bond to because she's not had enough life experience or self-awareness to really have a personality yet.

I have to say that I was really confused at first when the story switched away from Mallory to other characters. The transition was awkward and, on audio, you always wonder if you've missed something, accidentally skipped a chapter somehow. Furthermore, all of the Melissa Marr novels I've read followed one particular character and I expected this to do the same. Anyway, Aya and Belias, the other two main character, ended up being my favorites and I'm so glad she included them, even if it did make the story a bit harder to follow.

Aya, a high caste woman, signed up to fight in the competition, the only woman ever to do so. That she did this is scandalous, both because women are for breeding and because, as a high caste woman, she already has high status. Her reasons are twofold: 1) she does not want to breed ever 2) she wants to be part of the government to improve life in the daimon world. Her situation is further complicated by her ex, Belias, who would have been her marriage partner and whom she does love (marriage without breeding is not an option for daimons), who enters the competition in a misguided attempt to save her and win her back. The tensions between these two delighted me. Aya, of course, I love because she doesn't want children and refuses to fall into gender roles. Holla!

Though the characterization could use work, I still highly enjoyed Carnival of Souls' plot and world building. I have hopes that the characters improve in the next book in the series.

Rating: 4/4

Narration:
I probably wouldn't have gotten around to reading this novel for a while had James Marsters not done the narration. Who doesn't want Spike to read to them for hours? Of course, I was expecting the British accent he used on Buffy, but he doesn't talk like that here. This turns out not to be a hardship, though, because James Marsters voice is marvelous to listen to in any incarnation, and I do mean any, since the Curs talk in annoying southern accents.

Marsters has serious talent for audio narration, and I sincerely hope he continues to narrate this series and other audiobooks. He really is, Spike fangirling aside, one of the best narrators I've had the good fortune to listen to thus far. He even does a good job with the voices of the girls, even though many professional audiobook narrators struggle with the voices of the opposite gender. His narration for Carnival of Souls was all that I hoped and more.

Rating: 5/5

Audio or Print?:
Did you not read all of that about how James Marsters is the freaking best? LISTEN TO THIS BOOK.

Overall Rating: 4.5/5 ( )

This review can also be found at: Written Permission

Actual rating: 2.5 stars

Ok, so it was really slow going for me when I started reading Carnival of Souls initially. And I didn't want to blame the book, because I felt it wasn't the book's fault. But in hindsight, I think it might have been.

The first half of the book was slow. There was a lot of information, and it was being presented in a very tell-don't-show way. The daimons and the witches hate each other. Ok. But why? We never hear about the great conflict that led to this hatred. Other details that could have been so scintillating were just, passed over. Like the carnival.

For a book called Carnival of Souls, the carnival is not featured much. There is vague talk about different masks, but not what the different colours mean. We glean that black is for assassins, and white is for witches (which, if there aren't many witches, why have a mask for them, why not make them go UNmasked?) I just really wanted the magic of the carnival to come alive and grab me. Instead I was struck repeatedly with information I already had. Very disappointing.

The characters don't really have much depth. Aya had promise, until we learn her reasons for wanting to change the way women are viewed is pretty much entirely selfish. Mallory has spent her entire life training to come up against a daimon, and not only does she not recognize one, but she fails spectacularly when she does. And Kaleb gave me all sorts of heebie-jeebies.

The middle of the book picked up when alliances were formed and the info dump stopped for a minute. And then the last third or so of the book was just pure WTF-ery. I just couldn't even wrap my head around the whole thing. I hated the romance between Kaleb and Mallory. Apparently no YA book is complete without that instant love connection.

I think, though, the thing that got me the most aggravated was that I was expecting this to be a stand-alone book. But no, now there will be at least one sequel, and really... is it necessary?

Bottom Line: I had such high hopes for Carnival of Souls, but they were dashed by a severe case of repeat-shit-itis, YA-insta-love, and a meandering story that skipped what could have been the greatest details. ( )