Book Tour & Review: The Carnival of Ash by Tom Beckerlegge

On Tour with The Write Reads

Welcome to my stop for the book tour of The Carnival of Ash by Tom Beckerlegge!

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…

GENRE: Adult Literary Alternative History
PUBLICATION DATE: 15 March 2022
LENGTH: 528 Pages

Amazon | Goodreads

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Review

I must admit that I had different expectations at the beginning, with the book being marketed as fantasy. Reading the blurb, I’d conjured images of sweeping libraries and even poets battling it out with words, flyting style (or some other). Fortunately, I’d gotten some feedback before I had the time to start reading that this was a different kind of book, so I had the opportunity to realign my expectations.

Also, be warned of suicidal ideations in the first part. And… well, there’s a lot, really. It’s not that easy a book to get through; there’s violence, abuse, misogyny, sexism, among others. It gets dark. But then, the story is about a city that’s falling apart. Call it what you will – descent into madness, crash into hell. Yeah.

So with that out of the way…

The writing’s definitely appropriate for a book featuring a “city run by poets.” It’s rich and beautiful, though not a fast read. (Then again, I do struggle a bit more with literary type pieces, as opposed to those with “simpler” prose and screenplay material. But that’s just me.) I always love a story from multiple perspectives that blend together in some fashion though, especially if the characters are intriguing, even if I have to waddle through the confusion for a while. And I don’t shy away from dark(er) themes, so there’s that.

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommended Listening: As I mentioned in my open call for books to review, I’ll now be adding a song to my reviews! It’ll be one that either sums up the book for me, or what I’d imagine in a trailer were it a movie… or maybe even an original inspired by it 😉

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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.

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