I have mixed feelings about this book. I loved the idea: a city wracked by a mysterious contagion, with society divided between those who can afford special masks to protect them and those who cannot. Araby, our main character, is the daughter of the scientist who invented the masks--but not soon enough to save Araby's twin brother from the plague. Now factions within the city are stirring against the mad Prince Prospero, who rules the city with an iron grip, and Araby finds herself in the middle of the fight. The whole thing is inspired by one of my favorite Poe stories, so I was pretty excited.
So yeah, it sounded like a good read. And the storytelling is good. But I just couldn't connect with Araby at all--and Araby narrates the story, so that was a problem. She starts out the book as a poor little rich girl, depressed, self-absorbed, and always chasing oblivion, whether it comes in a bottle or a syringe. She grows a little as the story goes on, but she still seemed a so passive to me that I couldn't respect her much (this is especially apparent in the last few chapters, when she is literally passed from one faction to another and another without much resistance). I also had some trouble with the setting: it's steampunk, which I would normally love, but I had trouble telling right off that it was meant to be steampunk. Some of the technology is a little too advanced for the steam-era (microbiology, anyone?), so I kept wondering whether this was in some distant future, or meant to be set in, say, and alternate 1890. I also kept trying to set the City with a real-world counterpart--is this an alternate London? New York?--but I eventually gave up and just read it as a fantasy, which helped. This is the first in a series, so they didn't even get to the iconic parts of Poe's story--the masked ball.
Overall, I was a little let down with this book, and don't think I'll be pursuing the sequel.
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