Carnival of Souls- Melissa Marr

I struggled with myself about whether I was going to write a review of Carnival of Souls Mainly because this book was…well is lamesauce too immature?…Because it is the only thing that came to mind.

First off the characters, I didn’t give a SHIT about Kaleb or Mallory of even Adam, Evelyn or Belias….I only like Aya and Zevi… I could have read a whole book about the two of them and it would have been better, in a ridiculous kind of way.



Aya was a strong and awesome female character and I really felt for her, and that might be the only part of me that is sad that I will not continue to read this crap when it becomes a series like everything else.



Sad thing is the main character is Mallory and she has basically no personality and is a Mary Sue. I do not have problems with Mary Sue’s if the story calls for it, but come on! You have to give me something else! Broth is great, but I want noodles, pork, WONTONS! lol



The world building was sloppy, and parts made no sense. While no one likes info dumping I, at least, require, some sort of back story and explanation that is more than a few sentences long.



This book promised to be so dark, so lovely and disturbing. With the beautiful cover art and intriguing synopsis I thought I would love this novel, but it disappointed me in all kinds of ways.



It felt like half the horrible YA novels I have read in the past few years, striving to be different, darker, twisted…To make the dark appealing and to make evil almost good… It didn’t work. I could tell the author tried, but it didn’t quite make it.



In fact this novel almost wound up on my DNF list, but the language and plot were so simple it was an easy read. easy not fun So I went what the heck, and finished the damn thing.



The worst part however was *spoilers* that even though Kaleb loves Mallory (insta love with a bit of a paranormal half assed explanation) he marries her without her knowledge or consent and fucks another girls as a “stand in” bride to make sure it is legit. Then he shows up on Mallory’s door step professing love and telling her he will stand by her. At this point Mallory has a major crush, but she has spent a totally of maybe three hours with the guy and even she is like, “Uh…wait…what? No.”



I find this such a repulsive unattractive addition to what was already a mediocre book. In fact after that scene I basically skimmed the last 26 pages just so the novel would be over with. I had no interest in what happened to any of them, and I am a little sad I wasted the time reading it when I have a TBD pile of like twenty books.