March 3, 2024
I love a good retelling and this take on Poe's The Masque of Red Death delivers the hauntingly creepy vibes of the original.
In the aftermath of a plague that kills off most of the population, the survivors are living in two different realities. Those within the castle, separated by walls and boarded-up windows from the rest of the country, pretend that nothing has happened. The immunes outside band together, even as terrifying monsters haunt their woods.
Seraphina lives the life of a princess, snatched from her Jewish family just days before the castle doors closed for good. She's the replacement for a dead princess, impersonating the beloved daughter to keep the mad king from losing the last remaining shreds of sanity.
However, Seraphina's eighteenth birthday prompts the king to invite an outsider for the first time - a potential spouse for Seraphina. When Nic, an immune, stumbles across the slaughtered suitor in the woods approaching the castle, he sees his way inside. Both he and Seraphina, pretending to be people they're not, face a series of misunderstandings as they struggle to navigate this new world.
But as the servants flee, food begins to run out and the immunes and monsters on the outside focus their attention on the castle, Seraphina will need to make bold moves to ensure her survival.