Audiobook Review – Carnival Row: Tangle in the Dark by Stephanie K. Smith, Narrated by Karla Crome (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 3 hours and 8 minutes
Publisher: Audible Original
Release Date: October 3, 2019
ASIN: B07WNY5PH5
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone?
Source: Free Audible Original from Audible.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Tourmaline Larou lives an idyllic life of learning by day and partying by night. An aspiring poet, her future promises nothing less than brilliance.

Then, Vignette Stonemoss walks through the door, and Tourmaline’s world is upended.

As she struggles to understand the effect this stranger has on her, Tourmaline and her fellow fae face a looming threat from the human world. War is on the horizon, and their very existence is at stake.

And Tourmaline will discover whether love will save her – or destroy her.”

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.