Book Review: Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr

Title: Carnival of Souls
Author: Melissa Marr
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: September 4, 2012
Source: ARC from publisher (signed!)
My rating: 

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 Thoughts:

Carnival of Souls is the first of Melissa Marr’s new series after the success of the Wicked Lovely series.

At first, I wasn’t exactly sure what the Carnival of Souls was all about, but I lined up for Melissa Marr’s signing at BEA because I wanna meet her and I’m curious of what this new series is.

So basically, the book is about a place called the City, but within that City is the Carnival of Souls where menacing, creepy, murderous and weird stuff happens. There are daimons (who can transform to Curs-sort of a dog kind of creature with long talons) and witches. So far those are the only paranormal creatures mentioned. These two have been enemies for so long, and years ago the witches were exiled from the City, so they lived in the human world and the city is ruled by Marchosias. The story is centered around four main characters whose life intertwines through a twist of fate. Mallory, daughter of Machosias and a Watcher (also a daimon) but raised by a witch in the human world to hate daimons (even if she is a daimon). Then there’s Kaleb, Aya and Belias. There are deadly: physical and emotional competitions going on..Okay, I won’t say much more of the story as it will spoil you, hehe.

I like how serious the tone of the writing is (it has been always like that even in the Wicked lovely series). Told from different points of view, the Carnival of Souls is yet again another master piece from Melissa Marr. Her descriptions of a non-existing world makes it sound like such a world exists. The characters are not all relatable, and everyone seems so detached from I can’t say who or what but just they seem detached. The plot in itself is unique. When I started reading, I knew nothing of their world and I was like “what the heck is really happening here?”. It’s like Melissa Marr told started narrating the story and she just picked up from where things are happening right now. There are already stuffs that happened, some current relationships was already built. You know, it’s not like how other books begin from the beginning of how two people met, etc. ( i really hope you’ll get what I mean).

Overall, the end of the book made me realize how the story has just really started. Great book. :)

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