I was pleasantly surprised. I was not expecting such an outlandish setting just going off the cover and blurb, but it really worked for the story. Ferris went through so much character development and really learned from the journey by the end, which I thought was awesome.

This book is so much fun. Absurdist fiction at its best. Following Ferris onto cruise ship with surreal surroundings and characters, unraveling why he's there in the first place and how he gets out was the best way to spend a day. The wordplay capped it off for me. This book was a rollicking good read and I will happily recommend it to anyone who needs a bit of mystery, fantasy, and escape.

This fantasy/magical realism story was filled with twists and turns--and breaks with reality. Reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland for adults.

Ferris awakes on the Sea Queen, an ocean liner sailing a chocolate river. He's unsure how he got there, and wonders what's happened to his boyfriend, Harris. He seeks help from the first people he finds, a kindly musical trio made up of Olive, Cole and Scallywag--a child. They urge him to seek help from the Alchemist, but the Alchemist has been kidnapped to another dimension. So, Ferris' brought to The Detective who's aided by a talking, flying minihorse called Janus, and the Alchemist's wife and mistress to help find Ferris' way home.

They urge him to describe his home to see if he can retrace his journey. Each time Ferris tries to talk about Harris he is transported to another dimension where sweet Olive is trying to murder everyone aboard ship--notably Ferris. The Alchemist stands ready to defend Ferris, but Ferris must come to terms with the evil in his life before he can find his way home.

Through several iterations, Ferris begins to see the pattern--discussing Harris causes him terror, injury and pain. The persons in his Sea Queen journey all represent people in Ferris' real life, friends and lovers he's lost due to the abusive relationship he's trapped in with Harris. Breaking through his self-isolating walls, through the fantasy comfort of the Sea Queen comrades, gives Ferris the impetus and strength to reach for the help he needs to escape--both the Sea Queen and his abuser.

It's an imaginative way to relate the terror of domestic violence without being overt. Ferris is a good man, and he's ashamed of the fearful and dire situation he's allowed himself to fall prey to. His abuser has appropriately groomed Ferris, to remove those supports that would hinder his ability to control Ferris. The Winter Masquerade is a metaphor for removing the masks that hide our secret selves--and Ferris finally lays down his mask to his dear, but estranged, friends. It was then that Ferris began to remake himself into an independent man, one he could believe worthy of love.

It's at times comical and confusing, in the way that Alice in Wonderland is both comical and confusing. It is only once Ferris returns to his real life roots that we begin to see and understand his real life problems. It takes time, but the resolution mentions Ferris finding the love of his life much later--when his heart's finally healed and ready to accept that love.

Such a unique book. The descriptive words used in this book let you vividly picture the characters as well as the setting. The characters (while many) are well developed and bring the story to life.

I honestly have no idea what a good half of this book was about. The writing was interesting enough to keep me going, but it's very trippy. Fans of Alice in Wonderland would probably enjoy it much more than I did, honestly. It feels like 90% of the book was metaphors I didn't understand, but the characters were fun and it wasn't a chore to read.

Winter Masquerade is an absurdist fiction story that follows a young man named Ferris who awakens on the Sea Queen, a ship that is sailing on a sea of chocolate and which contains passengers with names like Miss Calculation,  Miss Communication, Miss Assumption and Miss Represent.  He had no idea where he is or how he ended up in this bizarre, surrealistic world; all he wants to do is get home to his boyfriend, Harris.  On the ship, he befriends an eclectic group of individuals who agree to help him find his way back.  There is supposedly one person on the ship who can help him called The Alchemist, but unfortunately, he’s just been kidnapped, creating another mystery to solve.  

A further mystery is the fact that Ferris seems to keep temporarily slipping into a darker, grittier, more menacing alternate dimension in which one of the ordinarily friendly musicians is trying to kill him, the ship he is on is nothing more than a rusted hunk of scrap metal, and the ocean is chock-full of garbage.  What’s strange is that this only seems to happen when he thinks about a certain someone back in his “real” world.  

This story really had an Alfred Jarry/Alice in Wonderland vibe to it, which was a lot of fun.  Though at first glance Winter Masquerade seemed like an absurdist, possibly silly story, there were actually many layers to it, especially once we figured out the true reason that Ferris found himself on the Sea Queen, which was slowly revealed to Ferris throughout the course of the book.

I found it fascinating how Ferris’s new experiences paralleled what was going on in his real world and how the book ended up being a story about survival and finding your own inner strength — about taking back your power.  It also served to remind us how easily someone can take that power away from us and, in the process, asks a lot of complex questions.

The characters in the story were charming and yes, silly, and each of them served a purpose in Ferris’s narrative as each helped Ferris to understand the life lesson his time on the Sea Queen is proving him.  I especially liked Cole’s character and enjoyed how Ferris slowly unraveled the mystery, thanks to Cole’s influence.  There’s also an interesting backstory surrounding Cole and Ferris’s relationship, which added an extra compelling layer to the story.  All the quirky and outlandish events in the narrative were kept steady and were grounded by the realism and truth behind it all.

This was a wild ride of a story with stellar world-building, a fun cast of zany characters, and an important message underneath it all.  I loved seeing Ferris come into his own and become the person he was meant to be.   I thought this was utterly enchanting and a treat for anyone who enjoys an off the wall tale with many layers — an intense roller coaster ride through a world of chocolate and danger.  This story is so inventive and so much fun that it repeatedly brought a smile to my face as I worked my way through it.  I loved this little gem!

But at the end of the day, one cannot forget one of the most important lessons of the book:  “Never fall in love on Wednesday.  Nothing good can ever come from anything happening on a Wednesday.”

Not for me.  This book had a definite Alice in Wonderland vibe and I was never a big fan of that type of story.  It's ridiculously absurd but it's meant to be.  I knew very early what all the characters were trying to get Ferris to realize.  What I never figured out was if it was Ferris' subconscious manifesting in a dream or something else.  Honestly it was just too over the top weird for me.

I went into this story completely unprepared for what was to come. I have not read a book by this author so it was like diving into the unique and wonderful story. At the start I was just as confused as Ferris was about what was happening and slightly got Alice in Wonderland vibes which is never a bad thing.
We find out that he is on a cruise ship on a chocolate ocean and that there are quirky characters like the band members and the alchemist. We learn that nothing good can come of a wednesday and that things are just getting started. It was such an experience following Ferris on his adventure as he tried to make sense of it all.
Definitely recommend this book. 

Thank you Netgalley for the arc.

Great if you like absurdist fiction. Alas, I'm not super into absurdism. There is a very Alice in Wonderland vibe that keeps the reader interested but at the same time I wasnt super wowed by the plot itself. I would definitely read this author again, but this story didn't impress me as much as I wanted it to.

Nothing good can come of a Wednesday.

Coincidentally, I am writing this review on a Wednesday. I hope it’s not a sign of things to come. 

While this starts off as a wild ride, the end result is a stronger Ferris who realizes he never lost those who care the most for him. When Ferris starts realizing what the fantastical characters at the Winter Masquerade are telling him and trying to make him understand, he seems to come back to his reality with a sense of confidence and stability, a condition he would have taken much longer to find without the intervention of a musician, a talking horse, a harp player, and an alchemist.

It was a fun and engrossing read.
I liked the cast of characters, the world building and the plot that kept me hooked.
It's the first book I read by this author and won't surely be the last.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.