The cover of this is so beautiful and I was immediately intrigued because of it. But it was really disappointing. The plot just meandered and I was so lost. There was both nothing and too much going on that nothing was fleshed out. I didn’t care about the characters and what was going on. The writing was lyrical, but I was lost.

If you loved The Night Circus you will probably enjoy this book. It creates a compelling world with interesting characters and a fast paced plot. Definitely a YA that older readers can enjoy. .

The Circus Rose, a queer reimagining of "Snow White and Rose Red," focuses on Ivory and Rosie, daughters of the Circus Rose's ring mistress.  After years on the road, they return to their birthplace, Port End, where fundamentalist preachers have taken over.  Rosie is attracted to women, but is in love with the circus's trained bear, whom she insists is a girl.  Ivory falls for Tam, a dark-skinned fey, neither male nor female, who has been hired as a magician.  The circus stages a spectacular homecoming show, but disaster strikes during Rosie's tightrope act and the circus tent burns down.  As they try to rebuild, performers are disappearing, as has their mother.  Ivory takes over as ring mistress and enlists Tam's help in getting to the bottom of the mysterious disappearances.  The present-tense, first-person narrative alternates between Rosie's pithy verse and Ivory's looping prose. This blend of fantasy and classic fiction will be available June 12th.

Told from alternating viewpoints (Rosie and Ivory) and in alternating styles (free-verse poetry and prose), The Circus Rose is a marvelous reimagining of the fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red. Rosie and Ivory are twins. Rosie is the start of the Circus Rose and Ivory is a stagehand who loves the magic created backstage. In this story, they confront bigotry, find love, as well as come into their own identities as individuals. While The Circus Rose is a fascinating and well-paced story, it also provides insightful commentary on issues relevant to our context, including religious extremism, gender identification, and gender. This book is highly recommended to fans of fantasy and folklore.

Reading this was like reading the first draft of a story. There were a lot of potential elements, but none of them meshed well. The world-building was confusing and never fully explained. When I started the story, I thought it was set in our world during a time when circuses were a high point of entertainment, but then the book mentioned the fey and a king and countries I’d never heard of. None of it was explained so I felt like I was missing something.

I never connected with either sister because Ivory’s chapters in prose were basically her just telling the reader everything that happened and Rose’s chapters in verse did nothing to add to the story except repeat what Ivory said or include confusing ideas. 

As for the plot, nothing happens for the first half of the story and then too much happens in the latter half. Too much unnecessary plot that was resolved much too quickly and felt forced to make some kind of social justice or political statement. Really, the church is the bad guy? Because that’s never been a plot line before. 

Also, the resolution of this story was laughable. The main character does absolutely nothing to solve the problem. She has no agency except when she’s kissing and sleeping with her perfect fey partner. And I’m still not over what actually happened to the missing people. It’s ridiculous.

I also couldn’t get over some of the story points. Like the whole Bear thing being a princess? Or that Ivory’s and Rose’s dads wanted to both marry their mom and were okay with sharing her? Or that the genderless fey use made up pronouns like “fe” and “fer” that look more like typos than trying to be diverse? Nobody who edited or promoted this book thought those were bad ideas?

I gave this book a chance because I love the idea of a fairytale retelling set in a circus setting. But I just cannot believe that this book is going to be published without some serious changes to the story line and character arcs.

Came for the steampunk circus, stayed for the alternating prose and verse. I've never read a book like this before. It was definitely an experience. I appreciate the author doing something against the grain. The decision to alternate between prose chapters and verse chapters was *chef's kiss*. It truly elevated Ivory and Rose's characterizations. I believe the world-building was top-notch. I relished all the yummy diverse rep!  The Circus Rose had the ingredients to be a four or five star read for me, however, the flat plot and uneven pacing hindered that. There was a lot going on, but no true investment to these plot elements for the reader to care. The conflicts didn't feel like conflicts as they were resolved quickly. There was no build-up, sense of immediate danger, or consistent action. 

It's a 3.5 stars rating for me.

I can entirely see how this book would be up some people's alley, but unfortunately it didn't mesh well with me. I think the world building was too tricky for me to read about right now, so I may return to this at another time.

The premise underlying Betsy Corwell's The Circus Rose is engaging. Imagine an Earth-like world where religious fundamentalists fight against what they call "lies"—which include everything from fiction to magic to, you guessed it, circuses. Now imagine a circus traveling by air ship, run by a bearded woman whose twin daughters each have different fathers, featuring a chorus line of dancing boys who incite desire among audiences of all sexual proclivities, and a faerie who is both a magician and double-gendered. One of the twin daughters dreams of becoming an engineer; the other is a circus performer whose closet companion is a performing bear. When the circus is burned to the ground and then its performers and staff begin disappearing, it is up the the would-be-engineer twin, Ivory, to figure out what is happening and to rescue those she loves.

Yes, there is a lot going on in this book and it is peopled with interesting characters. The plot, however is less complex than the context in which it's set. It begins slowly, then races to a too-easy conclusion at the book's end.

If you love plot-driven narrative, The Circus Rose may disappoint you. If you enjoy fiction that creates and sustains interesting worlds and charaters, you should find The Circus Rose an enjoyable read.

I received a free electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own.

The Circus Rose is a magical fantasy told in alternating POV's from twin sisters, Ivory and Rosie. The writing is so different based on what twin is narrating, and provides different context. Ivory is the more reliable narrator. Seriously the magic in this book is off the charts. Ivory and Rosie are a part of The Circus Rose, the circus hosted by their mother. For twins, Ivory and Rosie couldn't be more different - Ivory prefers to be a stagehand behind the scenes and Rosie is the high flying trapeze artist, star of the show. They are like Yin and Yang, fathered by two separate men who both loved their mother.

The main plot of the book revolves around the circus and challenges that pop during the circus. The first part of the book lays a lot of background into the twins and the circus before it gets into the main conflict. I thought the circus aspect was very compelling, along with the amalgamation of Fey, righteous Church groups, humans, a feminist world where girls can go to engineering school.

I loved the LGBTQIA pieces of the book. The Fey are described as being more androgynous, they are non-binary and have the pronouns of fe/fer. Rosie clearly identifies as only being attracted to females, and Ivory is attracted to males and Fey. Being in an open relationship or practicing polyamory is not strange. It's a very progressive and refreshing book.

The Circus Rose is an easy and quick read. The writing of Betsy Cornwell just flows so easily and it's simple to lose track of time around you as you delve into the world of the circus. For fans of Caraval, The Circus Rose is an enthralling, magical tale of sisterhood and finding yourself.

A wonderful novel, interweaving magic and massive themes, but lightly and always intriguingly. Highly recommended.

Recieved an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. A traveling carnival filled with magic and eccentrics journeys to fairy land. Unfortunately, The Circus Rose borrows all of its readable parts from better books, while the more original content stagnates. The conflict is theoretical, the characters underbaked. Alternating chapters between prose as and poetry kills any momentum the story accidentally creates. Read The Night Circus again instead.

I just really didn't care for this one. Not the writing or anything I just did not enjoy it. Probably because too many different things were trying to be smushed into this one book. I did like when we finally got a little action at the end tho but then again just a lot of talking not enough doing for me.

The Circus Rose is a retelling of "Snow White, Rose Red" set in a Steampunk circus, featuring twins, chapters in verse, a gender queer race of folks, and antagonists of a religious bent.   And you, know, for the most part, I liked those things.  For whatever reason, though, this book just didn't work for me.  The author invented a new pronoun for gender queer fairies, which is a cool idea, but pulled me out of the story every time (fe and fer).   The slightly more than occasional chapters in verse also felt jarring.  I'm not going to attempt to describe a plot, because, and this is my main quandary with the book, there really isn't much of a plot.  There's a bit of an obvious mystery that's introduced about half way in, but otherwise, the book is all circus atmosphere, quirky characters and only the hint of substance.  That said, I liked the concept. It just didn't work for me.  I'm not sure who it's for, or who I'd recommend it to. 2 stars - it was ok.

Thanks to Clarion Books and Netgalley for the eARC, which I received in exchange for an unbiased review.  The Circus Rose will be available on 16 June.

This book should have been my ultimate catnip - a retold fairy tale set in a circus told in prose and poetry. Sadly, it just didn't happen. The alternating POV chapters could have worked for twin sisters Ivory and Rose but coupled with one always in prose and the other always poety - the storytelling felt unbalanced. Gorgeous idea with rich worldbuilding and a different take on the fey but just not a book for me.

I was really excited for The Circus Rose and really thought I was going to love it. I made it about 40% when I decided to put it to the side. Me and the writing style just weren't meshing well. I can see how people are going to enjoy this one, but it wasn't for me.

This book was a super slow burn and it took a long time to get to the point but I was thoroughly enjoyable. There is something so magical about the circus even though we’ve never know anything like this. It was very well written.

This book was received as an ARC from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group - Clarion Books in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Circus Rose was breathtakingly brilliant. A mix of Water For Elephants and The Prestige except for the fact that it involves a tightrope act instead of a grand finale involving an elephant. A tightrope act that cost her everything calling it a disaster. With politics taking over the major decisions and costing everyone everything, a rampage of social in justice comes into play that could play a major role in saving the circus and doing what's right in the world with the help of Ivory, her magician, and even A BEAR! I could not get enough of this book and I know it will circulate very well with our YA collection and our YA community. Our teen book club will sure love this book too.

We will consider adding this title to our YA collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

This book is unlike anything ever read but I don’t know if that’s necessarily a good thing. The overall synopsis of this book hooked me but as I started reading I lost focus and couldn’t concentrate and enjoy the book as much as I should. 
I liked some things about it (language, description, its strange and whimsical nature) but I couldn't get on with it on the whole due to the lack of plot, characterisation, and (just to really hammer the point home) the fact that nothing actually seemed to happen.

The diverse range of characters is great and I liked some of them but others just felt boring. There needed to be an extra element to bring the characters and story to life. If you like poetry you’ll like this book, I am not the biggest fan so I didn’t appreciate that as I should’ve. 

The book has potential. Just because I gave it three stars doesn’t mean this won’t be a five star book for you.

This feels like it was written purely as an exercise in social justice and not to tell a story. 

The plot was weak and forced.

The plot supported the characters. The character should support the plot.

I read Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell years ago when it was first released and I loved it so much. I hadn't gotten around to picking up her other releases but when I seen the synopsis for The Circus Rose, I knew I had to read it and I was so excited.
I loved the writing style so much. It was beautiful and the alternating styles of the chapters, one character's perspective is written in poetry, was really interesting. I didn't love the poetry chapters but they were very unique.
The one thing that I feel really holds this book back is how aimlessly the plot wanders and nothing really happens throughout the book. I honestly couldn’t tell you what the actual plot is because there isn't one. The writing style and the fun atmosphere of the setting gives this book life but the complete lack of plot drags it down.