Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

        Masque of the Red Death is the first book of the Red Death series. The book is written by Bethany Griffin and is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's short story, The Masque of the Red Death. I remember being fascinated by Poe's short story when I first read it back in my freshmen year of high school in my language arts class. I loved how creepy it was and how Poe spent the entire time describing these beautiful rooms only to kill off all the people. When I heard about this book and how it was inspired by Poe's short story I was immediately intrigued on how Bethany Griffin would be able to portray his story into her own and I wasn't disappointed.
        Throughout the book the tone is mysterious, dark, and haunting which I think is amazing and I enjoy Bethany Griffin's style when it comes to her writing. It's different from other books I've read, I'm not exactly sure what about it is different though. Her writing perfectly creates an image in my head which is always a good thing to accomplish within a reader. 
       The world she has created with the help of Edgar Allan Poe is amazing to imagine. The main character, Araby Worth, lives in what seems to be in a dystopia society. Her world is succumbed by a plague where most of the population has died because of it. The people left try to avoid the plague by wearing specially designed masks only the rich can afford and the poor are forced to save up to buy one while running the risk of getting affected by the disease before they're able to save themselves. 
        I like how the people wear masks, I think it just adds to the mystery and the intrigue in this book. I love how the book has steampunk elements in it and I love how Araby joins forces with Elliot in hopes of creating a better world than what Prince Prospero has led. 
        I enjoyed reading about the characters, at first I didn't really connect with Araby which made it hard for me to read the first half of the book but along the way it got better. I loved her friends, April who is completely different from Araby. Elliot, April's older brother was entertaining to read about and how he interacted with Araby was even more fascinating. Will was sweet to read about because at first you think you know who he is, a bad boy but you later find out you're wrong. 
        The betrayals in the end of the book were shocking because I honestly didn't see them coming, it was as if they were pulled out of thin air so I had mixed feelings about them. 
        Some things that annoyed me about the book would probably be that there were moments when things were abrupt  sometimes it lacked a good transition which sometimes confused me but otherwise there wasn't really much to complain about. I give the book 4 out of 5 stars and I can't wait to read the next book, Dance of the Red Death. 

(520 words)

The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross

         The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross is the second book of The Steampunk Chronicles. The book takes place after the events of The Girl in the Steel Corset which means Finley and her friends head to the United States in order to help their friend Jasper which leads them into even more dangerous situations than before. 
      The book was told from Finley, Griffin's and Jasper's point of view. I always enjoy reading the point of view from other characters besides the hero or heroine, in this case that would be Finley, because it gives me insight on the character, so that's a positive in the book. I liked reading about the new characters in this book besides Mei, I didn't like her from the beginning because of this vibe I got. But I admit her character was interesting to read about, the collar around her neck didn't seem to have been mentioned enough as I thought it should have been. But I do realize that the collar was basically what kept the story going and it didn't need to be mentioned on every single page but I feel like it should have gotten more attention. 
      I did like reading about Wildcat she was tough and she was refreshing to read about, hopefully my intuition is correct and she'll become a bigger role later on in the series. It'll be interesting to see what she brings to the series alongside our beloved characters. Dalton, to me, didn't seem to be this huge bad guy everyone made him seem to be. I know he was ruthless and a killer but I felt like he wasn't too bad.
      Action seemed to be a lot more common in this book than the first one which was exciting to read about and I loved the small mentioning of the clothes because I love the dresses they wore back in the 1800's, I have this weird fascination with them.
      All in all the book was good, I didn't like it as much as the first book but it was good. I'll give The Girl in the Clockwork Collar three stars out of five and I can't wait to see what Kady Cross has in store for the next book in the series, The Girl with the Iron Touch.

(385 words)