Only If You Need More Carnival Row

If you are desperate for more from the world of Carnival Row and some backstory then give this a go, otherwise... I really wouldn't bother. It's not awful, and largely isn't bad, but it does lack the weight and quality that makes the show work. It does suffer from the ultimate self-sabotage of deciding to include a Fey poet and her works of love and lust that earn her acclaim and accolades, which are rather painful and trite in places.

Ultimately, this committed the worst sin of fiction in being boring and unengaging. The performance is decent, but can't save the story.

Judging by other reviews, your mileage may vary. ( )

This was a free Audible book which is apparently a prequel to some series I've never encountered before, involving faeries and a war. I'm really not the intended audience, and had a hard time finishing it (I literally fell asleep listening to it for 8 nights in a row, unable to stay awake long enough to complete the last 30 minutes). There were a few pages/minutes which were interesting, but overall it makes no sense if you're not familiar with the canon, and I can't tell if the source material is very worthwhile anyway. Ah, the perils of goodreads challenges, I should really be more selective, even for short free audiobooks. ( )

This is a prequel to the series on Amazon Prime. It tells about a fairy (the kind with wings) and her interactions. I found it prurient, full of drinking, drugs, sex and very little else. I only finished it because it's a very short (about 3 hours) audio book. ( )

Carnival Row: Tangle in the Dark
By: Stephanie K. Smith
Narrated by: Karla Crome
This story starts telling how the main characters, in the season premiere on NetFlix, meet. Then it goes into more details. Some that wasn't on screen at all! Surprising and interesting.
Narration was very good! ( )

This was okay. I got this as an Audible Original and the audiobook quality was good. The story is set in the world of Carnival Row (an Amazon Prime original TV series) and it was mainly a love story between two characters. This is an interesting world but I wasn't that engaged with the characters or the story.

I actually watched the first Amazon Prime episode of Carnival Row before I listened to this story, I was really hoping for something similar in tone to Penny Dreadful. However, I had the same issues with the TV series as I did with this story and just couldn’t get past the strange emphasis on weird fairy sex.

At times this story felt a bit like an HBO special with lots of unnecessary language, crudeness, and sex. Normally this doesn't bother me much, but it felt excessive and out of place here. The timeline was also a bit confusing, it seems like the story starts in the present, goes back into the past and then comes back to the present, but this isn’t clearly stated at any point.

Overall this was okay but not great. It provides some backstory on Tourmaline for those who are loving the Amazon Prime series. If you didn’t like the Amazon Prime series you won’t like this audiobook either. I personally think I am done with Carnival Row in all forms of media. ( )