AliciaReads

Ah, now I really want to work in a bookshop!

I was sent an ebook copy of this book in exchange of an honest review a few months ago. I wrote the review and was going to film a video for it, but after trying three times, I’ve given up. It just never turns out well, so I’m just going to post my written review.GoodReads summary:With James Agee, Jr.'s second work of fiction, Mask City, he presents a world where two siblings, Thomas and Lacy Farthur, are thrust out of their seemingly harmless world into a society they formerly didn't know existed: an underground domain where the common adage, "A person is not a person without a mask," is exploited in the most dreadful manner. Thomas and Lacy, through a series of dramatic and horrendous undertakings, eventually find themselves challenging the system that took everything away from them. This work is an exploration of friendship, trust, redemption, and discovering purpose.This story reminded me of the tales that I was told as a little kid, which is something that I wasn’t expecting. I went into the book not knowing much about it, but it was a nice surprise.The main characters of the book are Lacy and Thomas, who are siblings. We see them grow up during the first part of the book, but it’s during the second part of the book, which takes place in an underground world, that we get to see their personalities. I personally didn’t get too attached to them and I couldn’t relate to them as much as I would have liked, but I still thought they were interesting characters and I would have liked to get to know them a little better. Most of the side characters only appear in a couple of chapters and, again, I would have enjoyed reading more about them. The majority of them were rather flat: there were the mean guys, the cruel boss, the trustworthy friend... I don’t see this as something negative, but I thought I should mention it. This made it easier to understand the characters and get to know them a little bit better.As far as the setting goes, a big part of this book is set in an underground world. There, everyone is required to have a mask, which I would describe as a tattoo that covers a third of the face. Slavery and crime play an important role in this society, and Thomas and Lacy will be forced to live in it and adapt themselves to it.I found very interesting the way this society worked and I would like to know more about it. While reading the book, I couldn’t help but think: “Where do these people come from? I want to know more aobut this society!”I guess the lack of background information is due to the fast pacing, which I enjoyed. There were so many adventures! It was defintely easy to get into the story and keep reading.Overall, I liked the idea of this book and I enjoyed the characters and settings, but I think I would have liked it more if we had more information about these. I’d love to know why there’s this underground world and how this society developed.

This book was probably even better than the first one. I really enjoyed reading it and getting to know the characters.Here's my video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0soKZuNKGls