Dance of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

It’s not that long ago that I read the first book, The Masque of the Red Death. Normally I’m not into dystopic, post-apocalyptic books, but this is primarily fantasy. The world is similar to our late 19th century, early 20th century world and might actually be meant to be our world, though I’d say the differences hint at another world.

A plague is spreading, and civilisation is crumbling. There’s even talk about a new, worse contagion spreading. Between the different faction, the spread of the disease and Araby not being sure who she can trust, the situation is definitely deteriorating. Her best friend is dying, her mother is a prisoner of an evil ruler. It seems Araby’s father is somehow involved in everything that’s happened. Can things get any worse?

I found this book well written and fascinating. The characters are well developed and engaging. I found it a little hard to relate to Araby, but that didn’t matter. The story pulled me in anyway.

I would recommend this story to anyone who likes dystopic fantasy (with a little bit of steampunk thrown in, I think – actually it seems no story is actually all steampunk, it’s always just a bit, isn’t it?).