Dance of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Pages: 400pgs

The Story

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.

The Review

Bethany Griffin's first book in the series, Masque of the Red Death was one of my favourite books from 2012 (mostly because it's a retelling of one of my favourite Gothic short stories coming from Mr. Edgar Allan Poe himself and whom I idolize) and I was pretty excited to grab its sequel as well because the story was that awesome. So considering everything I've just read, DANCE OF THE RED DEATH was certainly a much more fast-paced book than the previous book was (which is great) and it definitely answered the many questions I still had after reading that first book (again this is great). However, I wasn't as wowed by this sequel as the first book but I still enjoyed immensely.

Out of everything, there were two major things I loved about this particular sequel. One was of course the main character, Araby, and, two, being what occurred in the actual storyline that - thankfully - followed pretty closely to the original story it retold. In terms of Araby's character, I loved the fact that she didn't hold back in this book - if at all - and her character was strengthen to a point where you had become so amazed by her with how far she has actually come to be this strong and unfazed main character because let me tell you this girl kicks a lot of ass in this book. Maybe not in fist-fights and such, but she has her own way of kicking butt (more so in a quiet way) which made me love her even more. Now in terms of the storyline itself, I loved that it included the masquerade ball which also occurs in the original Poe tale and let me tell you I've been waiting for this particular moment since last year of reading the first book, so I'm definitely glad the author does not disappoint me there because I loved it so much!

While I was pretty happy with mostly everything that happened in the sequel, but the only thing I was disappointed with was the 'sort of' love triangle the author introduced. Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly a love triangle so to speak, but I felt like that was how it was set-up to begin with and I actually had high hopes for it since I loved both of the guys for completely different reasons. Sadly on my part, the 'sort of' love triangle (even though it wasn't necessarily an intense love triangle) was really disappointing. Really disappointing.

Will's character, one of the boys in question, certainly redeemed himself in this book and I can see why Araby liked him a lot because I began to like him again, but with the guy I was initially rooting for secretly from the first book, that being this guy named Elliot, I thought his character was completely unnecessary this time round in the sequel. I felt like he had so much potential as a character but instead he fell so flat for me in the end. I just did not see the chemistry between him and Araby (even though they totally had it in the first book so who knows where that went) and I already felt like Araby knew who she wanted to be with . . . so why get hot and heavy with Elliot all of a sudden for no reason at all? Huh. It was just hot and cold with them . . . but no matter . . . I still liked Elliot for being the self-serving prat that he was. I guess. Pfft.

Overall, DANCE OF THE RED DEATH was a great sequel and while it did have its highs and lows, I was still happy with how everything ended up like and that's the main thing here.

The Rating

4/5 stars