Began reading: 8.9.2015
Completed reading: 13.9.2015
Overall rating: 3.8 stars
The City is a place where daimons adhere to social hierarchies, yet in the Carnival of Souls at the heart of The City, ruling caste mixes with those of lower caste to earn a chance to join the privileged. Kaleb is of the lowest caste, while Aya is in the ruling caste but faces discrimination, as she is female. For both of them, fighting in the Carnival provides freedom and the power to change The City. In the human world, Mallory is unaware of The City, but understands that witches exist and daimons are dangerous — that is, until she meets Kaleb. In order to protect her family, Mallory will have to overlook her scepticism of Kaleb and let herself be swayed to enter The City.
Carnival of Souls, also known as Untamed City, by Melissa Marr is a young adult fiction novel that encompasses themes including the paranormal, fantasy and a hint of romance. As with Michelle Rowen’s Countdown, I got it for $1 and thought it would be a book that could keep me entertained while I completed assignments. Overall, I wouldn’t say that I was disappointed with the novel, but there were flaws that I will explore in this review.
On the positive side, the novel had potential with an interesting plot. The concept of death and pleasure vendors mixing, and being determined by the colour of the mask was really interesting. I enjoyed the fact that the story was told with three points of view, as opposed to one or two. I also liked the thought of a ruling caste female character fighting for her beliefs. The only downside to this is that Marr incorporated the points of view of some of the minor characters, which made the story a bit confusing.
There were also some really good quotes that I had to make note of. These included:
Good daughters didn’t question. They obey (p. 13).
…the unheard-of act of an upper-caste woman entering [the fighting competition] was more shocking than the violence of the matches themselves (p. 24).
Being pushed to the wall made a person do things that they’d not have believed themselves capable of… (p. 25).
Rumours were useful tools in establishing a reputation (p. 96).
In The City, guns were forbidden. Death was to be an act of closeness. That was the law: ‘If you cannot touch the person you are ending, you can’t kill them.’ Guns made death impersonal (pp. 100-101).
The City was rife with corruption, but it had order that the Untamed Lands lacked (p. 210).
Kaleb wished he could take a few moments to see what she read, what she listened to, what secrets were revealed by what she chose. Hers was a life completely different from his, and he wanted to understand her (p. 216).
There were also some great plot twists that kept me interested. *WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER* For example, a particular character’s parents were unexpected and characters I thought were dead really weren’t.
Personally, I thought that Mallory’s point of view was a bit boring and anti-climactic. In the beginning of the novel, Mallory was described as a tough girl, who was taught to defend herself when she was threatened. Despite her lessons with weapons, she turned out to be useless, as she didn’t bother to defend herself when she came across danger. I don’t really know why, but I thought that Aya’s story was far more interesting than Mallory’s.
Speaking of disappointments, the ending was quite a letdown. Everything started happening towards the end, and then it abruptly ended. I mean, what was happening in the last twenty or so pages of the novel should’ve happened in the middle of the book. I’ll definitely have to read the sequel when it’s released, but seriously…
My favourite character was Aya, as she can be ruthless, determined, judicious and compassionate. My second favourite characters were Zevi and Belias. As you would’ve guessed by now, I didn’t like Mallory’s character. She was childish, frustrating and submissive.
My favourite parts of the novel were whenever Aya and Belias were interacting with each other. I got a bit emotional when their fight ended, but I loved it. I also really loved their back story. THEY WERE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER!
Recommendation time! If you like Countdown by Michelle Rowen or The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, you will love this book. Also, I recommend this book to anyone who likes Elysium or Drogo and Daenery’s story in Game of Thrones.
I suggest reading Marr’s Carnival of Lies, which is a novella that explains how it all began. Note: Untamed City is a combination of both Carnival of Lies and Carnival of Souls.
Happy reading!
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