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Review: Carnival Row: Tangle in the Dark by Stephanie K. Smith

May 22, 2024 by C. J. Daley (CJDsCurrentRead) Leave a Comment

Rating: 8/10

Synopsis

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.

Carnival Row: Tangle in the Dark is set in the world of the Amazon Original series Carnival Row, created by Travis Beacham and René Echevarria. Carnival Row is available only on Amazon Prime Video. 

Review

So this is a reread for me. I recall listening to it and reviewing it, and as I just finished season two the other day I remembered this and looked for it and it was entirely gone. No review on audible, Goodreads, or my instagram. So maybe I dreamed it. Oddly fitting.

Tangle in the Dark is a prequel to the Amazon Original show. It features Tourmaline Larou (whose actor, Karla Crome, does the narration for this…quite well too) as the main character, her time as a student at university, and the beginnings of her relationship with Vignette. It serves to further deepen the characters, especially as this deals with some of the world’s classism between even the same races, before the show itself starts to show the darker side of the world’s feelings between the races. As a student, budding poet, and nighttime partygoer, Tourmaline has to learn to overcome some of her preconceived notions about those that maybe are outside of her own social class. It makes their relationship seem more real, as their attraction to each other also teaches them about themselves. It’s also interesting to see simply because the world they are in, and the lives they are living, in the show are so drastically different from what we read here. It gives off possible ideas for what the show could have looked like during peace times (if we can even believe those are possible).

Enjoyable, a bit refreshing in how different it is, and quick.

I also wanted to use this review to talk a bit about the show. I’m always surprised by the lack of reception I see for it online. For me, it ticked an awful lot of boxes, so to see practically nothing about it is just so weird to me. And I’m sure that’s the reason it only received two seasons (at least they knew and wrapped up storylines, unlike Nos4A2 which I also just finished and it was somehow in the middle of starting NEW storylines and got canceled). But just like the popular Game of Thrones or even The Rings of Power and The Wheel of Time, I often see people online complaining that there are so many amazing and unique ideas out there in the world and yet they keep dipping into Tolkien or more GOT spinoffs…and yet a show like this, which has action, deceit, intrigue, action, and sex (much like GOT but in a less high fantasy setting) and there’s hardly a peep about it.

The show is in a somewhat industrial, Victorian-era fantasy world, that is also a bit steampunk/sci-fi, where humans are living with fairies, fawns, and a bunch of other creatures. And the show, while being character forward, still heavily deals with race, racism, and classism, where the humans of course think they are above the rest. The show stars Orlando Bloom (another reason I’m surprised no one talks about it) and Cara Delevigne (who I did not particularly care for after seeing Suicide Squad, but she sold me in this), and season one starts out largely as an almost fantasy world noir. Philo, Orlando’s character, is an inspector who is investigating a murder, and Vignette, Cara’s character, is a fairy that is both romantically involved with Philo, and possibly linked to the crime. I absolutely love the blend of mystery and fantasy, and I think season one did a great job of it.

Season two continued to deliver a lot of the same feel, with Philo still trying to stick to his crime solving ways, even though he’s no longer fully excepted. Now, when I watched season two, I honestly hadn’t realized they had canceled it, so I ended up surprised with how well the storylines closed up, but at least it was well done. And while I think the show could have continued, and I would have watched more, at least it got a fair shake at ending itself. Season two definitely cut out mostly all of the sex from season one, focusing instead on important character beats, and finishing out what had been started.

All in all, a two season show absolutely worth checking out!

Filed Under: Action & Adventure, Dark Fantasy, Detective Noir Fantasy, Fantasy, Military Fantasy, Reviews, Steampunk Tagged With: #AmazonOriginal, #Audible, #AudibleOriginal, #CarnivalRow, #KarlaCrome, #OrlandoBloom, #StephanieKSmith, #TangleintheDark

About C. J. Daley (CJDsCurrentRead)

I was an avid player of Who Wants to be a Millionaire: Lord of the Rings Edition. When the millions turned out to be fake, and answering that ‘Athelas’ was another name for ‘Kingsfoil‘ grew tiresome, I retired. Now I'm a horror author and an avid reader of all things sci-fi/fantasy/horror/mystery.

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