#bookreview The Carnival of Ash by Tom Beckerlegge
Hello and welcome back or welcome if this is your first time stopping by the blog.
Today I have a book review for The Write Reads Ultimate Tours. It is coming a little later then planned but late is better than never.
Book Info
Genre: Historical Fiction/Alternative History
Adult Literary Fiction
Length: 528 Pages
Publishing: 15th March 2022
Blurb
Cadenza is the City of Words, a city run by poets, its skyline dominated by the steepled towers of its libraries, its heart beating to the stamp and thrum of the printing presses in the Printing Quarter.
Carlo Mazzoni, a young wordsmith arrives at the city gates intent on making his name as the bells ring out with the news of the death of the city’s poet-leader. Instead, he finds himself embroiled with the intrigues of a city in turmoil, the looming prospect of war with their rival Venice ever-present. A war that threatens not only to destroy Cadenza but remove it from history altogether…
My thoughts
⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
The Carnival of Ash by Tom Beckerlegge is possibly one of the beautifully worded books I have read this year thus far.
I can just imagine walking the streets of Cadenza, the city of libraries, of poets. The city of words. Where one can find their fantasies fulfilled in writing by the ink maids.
I adored the writing, the world. The author has a way of making thus city come to life on the very pages one is reading, making me want to crawl inside. Except maybe during the plague,who was to be in a plagued city. The characters are horrible and awful but so well done that you keep reading.
This book is filled with so much death and so much beauty. It is dark and has sinisterness to it and the writing style is very reminiscent of the classical style that from the moment I started it I knew it was one that I would love. It made me think of The Monk by Mathew Lewis, this is no way a comparison of the two as it has been quite sometime since I read that book but nevertheless it was The Monk that popped into my head whilst reading this one. It made me want to go back and read it again.
It is sensual, beautiful and mysterious, yet deplorable and grotesque. I wanted more and was never bored. Tom Beckerlegge is an author I will most definitely read more of.
I will definitely buying a finished copy to sit next to this uncorrected proof one.
About the Author
Tom Beckerlegge grew up in the northwest of England in a house filled with books. Writing as Tom Becker, he won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize with his debut novel; The Carnival of Ash is his first adult book. He lives in Enfield with his wife and young son.
Comments
Post a Comment