‘A Girl Made of Air’ by Nydia Hetherington was a fabulous read. Circuses, a bit of the supernatural and mysticism is right up my street. I particularly liked the description and folk tales from the Isle of Man. I holidayed on the island many times as a child and was obsessed with the fairies.

I have absolutely adored every page of this beautiful, breathtaking, exquisite debut! I found myself re-reading certain passages to savour and fully take in the wonderful words and I made notes of several quotes as I was reading.

Learning of Mouse’s life (we never learn of her real name) in the circus and how she learnt to become a funambulist (a tightrope walker) was such a fascinating experience. We meet Mouse in the present day as she is using her typewriter to type out her memories, notebook entries and letters from her childhood and adulthood. I was correct about the significance of the first chapter too which was really clever! She has lived as part of a unique community and it has been a pleasure to learn of her experiences. I also liked the intrigue of knowing something had happened to one of the children within the circus encampment from the beginning and being able to wonder as I was reading about how Mouse was involved.

The descriptions and details were so rich and vivid that they made the world of the circus come alive. I felt like I was there breathing in the smells, hearing the sounds and seeing the magic for myself. I loved the mystique, history and depth of the characters too and learning of their pasts made me feel very emotional at times especially of Mouse’s heritage. I also really liked seeing the developing friendship Mouse had with Serendipity Wilson, who taught Mouse everything she knew about being a funambulist. The tales of folklore that Serendipity told Mouse, which were interspersed throughout the story, were a joy to read too. The whole story has been a truly spellbinding adventure.

I am so grateful to have been granted my wish by Netgalley to read this incredible debut. I will always remember ‘the greatest funambulist who ever lived’ and treasure having learned of Mouse’s life and the characters that shaped her experiences within the circus and beyond.

This book was very emotional with elements of magical realism. I liked the writing, the atmosphere.
It could be a little more energetic, sometimes it got too slow.
But overall, I enjoyed the story.

Thanks a lot to NG nad the publisher for this copy.

The girl is a tightrope walker, the best in the world. She was brought up in the circus but when she was rejected by her parents, Serendipity Walker takes her in and teaches her to walk. Then Serendipity has a little girl, Bunny, who is lost and the girl must find her. Where on earth can she begin to look?

I really wanted to enjoy this novel, I love magical realism and Serendipity's stories are just beautiful. Unfortunately, I just didn't feel the rest of the stories lived up to the hype - the girl spent a lot of time talking without achieving much and the story slowed right down to a snail's pace from pretty early on.

I'm just not sure that there's enough of a story here to keep it going so it's been rather padded out where it needn't have been. If a lot of the extra bits came out, I think it could be really lovely. At the moment, it isn't quite there yet...

Set in the post-war era, this novel tells the story of Mouse - we never know her real name - and her life as a funumbulist, told through interviews, letters, articles and memories. Mouse was born into a circus family who had no time for her, lonely and uncared for, she’s taken in by Serendipidy Wilson, a funumbulist who teaches Mouse her trade.

The second half of the book sees Mouse making a career for herself in New York, whilst seeking to make amends for a life changing mistake which becomes the focus of the novel.

This wistful novel is haunting at times, has moments of true sadness, inter dispersed with lyrical tales of folklore and myth. The magical elements are contextualised within the personal histories of the circus folk, and the circus atmosphere is truly brought to life in the first half. Mouse’s time in New York takes us through her adulthood in Coney Island and beyond, her success is almost glossed over since it is secondary to her purpose in America.

Wistful, lyrical and whimsical, this novel is a treasure. I look forward to what comes next from Nadia Hetherington.

Many thanks to Nadia Hetherington, Quescus Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I loved this story - anything to do with the magic of circus is always a winner in my opinion.

Mouse is a tightrope walker, making her living as The Greatest Funambulist Who Ever Lived. Born to a mother who seems to care not one bit for her, she finds solace in the company of Serendipity Wilson, and learns the tightrope trade.

This is a story in many ways about family and the lack of it - can a circus family make up for a set of parents who don't seem to care? Mouse's upbringing affects her whole life; when Serendipity Wilson has a baby girl Mouse's closeness to this new Bunny is clear to see, yet this relationship will traumatize her future.

I loved all the circus descriptions - the acts and the colourful array of characters; I loved the vivid descriptions of New York as Mouse carries on her life journey across the Atlantic. Warm, colourful, funny and sad, this is a beautiful book.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more into crime/thriller books and even psychological thrillers too so I am extremely pleased and grateful to them for opening up my mind to something totally different.

I was so ready to love this book. I like circus, weird, magic themes. But I found this one slow-going. Bits of it were beautiful and it IS very well-written,.but it felt a little saggy in the middle and at points I nearly gave up.

The story begins with an interview. A star struck journalist is talking to The Greatest Funambulist Who Ever Lived. The telling of small snippets of her life unlocks something in our enchanting, complex, ragamuffin of a retired circus star, and she embarks on a letter to the journalist – a transcription of her childhood journals. The reader is teased with the unraveling of emotions about a mermaid mother and a lost baby Bunny. Who was Bunny? Who did she belong to? Where did she go? What happened to Serendipity Wilson, the magical red haired fae mother figure of the Funambulists’ childhood?

This story has overwhelmed me with feelings. I was literally unable to put this book down – every time I tried, it called to me with its circus encampment sounds and smells, the gawdy glamour of the artistes, the big top and painted wagons. The journey was compelling – from the worn out English circus to the decaying Coney Island.

Conversational prose make the story flow easily pollenating the characters’ growth and the colours came alive – the vivid touch, strength and challenges for a Funambulist made spectacular by the auditory description of the applause, and the buzzing of the iron that provides the backdrop to her true rise to fame. The story is spellbinding ~ by her own admission the Funambulists’ memories elaborate and almost lore-ish. The reader is only certain that none of it is certain.

“Everyone is the star of their own show, performing for the passing, faceless crowds. We are all clowns.”

This story has two faces – the one with sparkling greasepaint, and the other red raw after the makeup is scrubbed away. Before I had finished the book I had pre-ordered the hard copy because there is nothing quite like the seduction of the physical book. This story will make you look harder. I highly recommend.

‘We travel along the thread of narrative like high-wire artistes. That is our life’ ~ Angela Carter

Well this was a very magical read! A story of life itself, the many trials and tribulations we face and how relationships shape and frame us. The main narrator is Mouse (gorgeous name) who tells a journalist about her life and time in the circus. We learn about her mum, and a character named Serendipity who took her under her wing and created ' the greatest funambulist in the world!

This is a life retold via memories, regrets and impressions, some of them in diaries and all of them wrapped up in fairytalesque language. There's shadows of darkness interspersed with spotlights and this writing style mirrors the nature of the circus perfectly. It was fascinating to find out about life on the road with a travelling circus.

There is plenty of mystery and folkloric background in this novel. Serendipity Wilson for example was found as a baby under a bush on the Isle of Man. She talks of Manx folkstories and this has affected her as a person growing up. The mix of cultures, life experiences and countries all add to the story and what it means to belong.

A wonderful story. Sit back and relax to read this. It's a circus experience!

I was approved to review a digital review copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This review will be cross-posted on my book blog "Bookmarked" and Goodreads. The review will be published on August 17, 2020, in line with the publisher's directives. It will be available at the following link: https://angiesbookmarks.wordpress.com/2020/08/17/a-girl-made-of-air-arc-review

THE BOOK REVIEW

I was drawn by the promise that this book is for fans of Erin Morgenstern and Angela Carter. The title already places the story in the magical realism genre and projects a certain lyrical tone. Reading the first few chapters, I was uncertain about the book - I feel the first half of the novel is perhaps not as compact and streamlined as the second half - but by the end my doubts were cleared and resolved.

Trigger Warnings: Explicit sexual content, rape, concentration camps, post-partum depression/psychosis, suicide.

WHAT I LIKED

The story follows Mouse, a circus artiste, who walks the wire of past and future, suspended in her present quest of finding a missing baby. I like how the author and the narrator manage to strip down the magic of the circus to grime, stinky animals and primal needs while simultaneously weaving an atmosphere of fairy dust and wonder through the characters. I don't necessarily think this was always a balanced trade-off, but it certainly is one that adds mysticism to the figures living in the shadow of the big top. A Girl Made of Air is a richly evocative fairytale in careful balance between ethereal magic and gritty reality, between past and future.

Despite the messiness of the funambulist's written account (explained below), her character progression is realistic. Getting the perspective of someone as flawed as Mouse is interesting, as it is following the fragmented account of her life. It's somewhat whiny and angsty, but I am willing to attribute that to teenager moodiness. Most of Mouse's best moments come when interacting with Marina and Manu rather than with Serendipity. I would have liked to see their relationship, and the conflict arising from Serendipity's aversion for Marina, take a more crucial role within the first half of the narrative. I feel it would have provided a stronger backbone: whom is Mouse going to choose? Who is the lesser evil?

Ultimately, I feel this was a story about agency and motherhood, about what it means to own and to lose them. Each female character embodies a different kind of motherly figure - from Big Gen's matriarchal "rule" over the big top to Aunt Betty's warm, charitable affection. After Cubby, Marina was my favourite character. She is a much more complex than Mouse fashions her out to be and offers a good rendition of the long-term effects of trauma, violence and rape. All in all, she is a character who stayed true to herself until the end - for good or for worse. She felt the most real to me.

Serendipity gained depth after Bunny's birth. I appreciate the author's choice to portray motherhood as something way more complicated and dangerous than what mainstream media construct it to be.

The story picks up properly around the 40-50% mark. It took me a while to get into it, but eventually I did and it was fairly smooth sailing after that. I would have liked if the American section of Mouse's account had been given more space rather than a quick summary (it sounds like a feminine version of The Great Gatsby, which I would be more than ready to read), but I feel the ending is perfect for the book. Head held up high, it brings the story full circle and confidently into a free, unknown future.

WHAT I LIKED A LITTLE LESS

The Prologue and Chapter 1 feel like two prologues. Furthermore, what is described in the Prologue is occasionally hard to understand or picture; it feels a little chaotic.

The language is constantly lyrical. It hardly changes tone or pace. This not only makes all characters sound the same, but it also makes them sound artificial at times. It renders the prose droning, and when a spectacular moment does come about, I can't appreciate it because it doesn't sound or look different from the rest. I feel the story might need some streamlining and editing down, other than order.

This would also solve the second most prominent problem the book has for me: repetition.

Every two or so chapters, Mouse reiterates that the interviewer from Chapter 1 must help her in her search, that she is reconstructing her story from memory and old notes, that she is smoking and writing in a bare room, and that she is scared of revisiting the mementoes of her youth (photographs, letters, etc.), and so on. I can accept reading that once or twice - it is a fairly old narrative technique (mostly used by Romantic writers and some Victorian ones) - but the narrator repeats it too often. If the narrator doesn't have at least some degree of confidence about what she is writing, why should I read her story?

Repetition also holds true for individual descriptions. For instance, Serendipity's "secret" is described in at least five different forms of disgust and dirtiness. I don't need to re-read the same descriptions every time something comes up.

I think the the first half of the novel lacked some compactness. The focus keeps shifting from one memory to another to another, back and forth. There is a lot of backtracking within backtracking. The story feels needlessly confusing and convoluted when as a reader I am looking for something, a hook, to keep me reading, guessing, hoping. One of my recurring thoughts was "Now what is the story? Where is it?" It also makes it hard to trace the narrator's growth in terms of age.

From a typesetting and design point of view, I would strongly encourage differentiating between spoken sentences and prose and keep thoughts as italics. Similarly, I would recommend clearly separating memories from "present" writing. It would make the reading experience much more fluid, in my humble opinion. I did stumble more than once.

Reading, I found inconsistencies in the use of present and past tense to recount memories, plus a couple of clunky sentences, typos and mistakes. Nothing a round of proofreading wouldn't fix though!


Overall, I'm excited to see this novel published and on bookshop shelves! I'll be sure sure to point it out to a few friends who would appreciate it.

Some books surprise you, but not in a good way. This was very much one of those books for me. I requested it based on its blurb, expecting a whimsical, fantastical read reminiscent of The Night Circus or Caraval. But, this is not a magical YA fantasy. It is much darker than that.

A GIRL MADE OF AIR is a recollection of an unnamed Funambulist's life by our protagonist, known as Mouse, told through taped interviews, journals, news articles and letters. Mouse, who was raised in a circus and shunned by her performer parents, Marina and Manu, befriends the enigmatic Serendipity Wilson who shows her the ropes, literally. Now arguably the Greatest Funambulist Who Ever Lived, she sits down for a newspaper interview to try and unravel the mystery of the lost child: what happened to Serendipity’s daughter, Bunny?

I struggled with the first third of this book. Where was the magic? The promised whimsical fantasy? The whispered myths of Marina and Serendipity’s origin stories are overshadowed by the visceral odours of the animals that Mouse sleeps amongst; the sumptuous descriptions of tightrope walking are lost to overly descriptive sexual encounters that left a bad taste in my mouth. Marina’s backstory was the turning point of realisation that this is not a magical, feel-good circus story: it is a story of redemption, dark secrets, and the very bleakest of human nature, set against a backdrop of a circus in all its grime and glory.

I wanted to love the protagonist, as much as I wanted to love this book. I just couldn’t. It was well-written with an interesting method of storytelling. I wished there was more focus on the tightrope walking; on the magic of the circus itself. But trauma is weaved into the narrative like a gold thread in a starry sky, and I struggled to find solace in Mouse’s voice, when she herself objectifies women. There’s an audience for this book, but sadly, it wasn’t me.

"All we can do is perform our lives as gloriously as possible."

This is spellbinding. The entire novel is slightly ethereal - like every good circus trick, your senses create an illusion and it's never certain what's truly going on. It weaves it's tale slowly, drawing you in like the sight of the tents in the distance. Then you step across the threshold, the lights go out, and the funambulist begins.

The protagonist is Mouse - the greatest funambulist who ever lived. World-renowned, Mouse is now retired and gives one last interview. In the aftermath, she sits down and goes over her diaries, reminiscing over her life. She has a tale to tell, and wants to entertain her audience one last time.

Mouse is fascinating. She goes from a naive, innocent child, navigating the murky world of a circus where she doesn't know her place, to a precocious child star, to an intelligent young woman with ideas of her own. We spend the entire novel in her head yet in many ways she remains a mystery - probably because she is a mystery to herself. Her relationship with Serendipity Wilson is enthralling and multifaceted. The writing exquisitely captures the love, the hate, the dependence, the worship, and the evolution of feeling throughout Mouse's life. Similarly, Mouse's interactions with Manu and Marina were sometimes heartbreaking but always exquisitely rendered.

I was impressed with how Mouse always felt her age. We followed her from childhood right through to her retirement, and each entry felt authentic. The flashbacks to young Mouse felt young - her thoughts and words were immature, her perspective narrow, her emotions all hot or all cold. It was rarely confirmed what age she was as she grew, but it didn't need to be because the writing conveyed it perfectly. Her words and feelings matured, her perspectives on relationships changed. The little interjections from adult Mouse looking back helped to show how much she'd changed - or not changed.

The writing is this book's strength. It's exquisite. It transports you into the world of the circus, into Mouse's daydreams, into bedtime stories told by Serendipity Wilson. You can almost hear the clicking of knitting needles or the roar of the crowd. It's a fully immersive experience and it's glorious - a triumph of literature. The plot is clever and twisty but secondary to the imagery evoked.

It's always a brave move to compare a book to 'The Night Circus', but this truly deserves the comparison. Is it the same? No, not at all - the only tangible similarities shared are that both books contain a circus, and both books are driven by imagery over plot. But they both create a whimsical, almost fairytale atmosphere, casting a spell with words to take the reader someplace else. Those who liked 'The Night Circus' should like this book.

Overall, this is a brilliant book. It won't appeal to everyone - some might find it slow, or lacking in plot, or generally too filled with whimsy and not enough with substance - but for the dreamers, the believers, the ones who want to be entertained by the whimsical and the fantastic, this is the book for you.

Having recently been bewitched by books by Erin Morgenstern and Angela Carter, the mention of both in the blurb for 'A Girl Made of Air' raised high expectations – but also the worry that it might be a crushing disappointment if it failed to meet them. Thankfully, it didn't. This book is wonderful.

I suspect every review when it comes out will mention 'The Night Circus' thanks to the circus in which much (not all though) of this story is set. It's no copycat novel though: 'less magic and more myths' would be my flippant way of describing the main difference.

But the style too. 'A Girl Made of Air' is told in a much more fragmented way: 'Mouse' is retelling her life story to a journalist, sometimes with scraps of journals from the time and sometimes looking back from now. There are also some folklore stories told in the voice of Serendipity Wilson, her mentor (which, to add another comparison, reminded me of another wonderful book: Zoe Gilbert's 'Folk').

There are plenty of jagged edges to the story too: bad things happen to good people, and terrible decisions lead to awful consequences sometimes. If I say it feels fairytale-esque, that's very much in the not-censored-for-modern-children sense of the word. Much of the writing is beautiful, but it can be deliciously earthy too – I'm going to struggle to forget the 'like trying to squash a marshmallow into a slot machine' line anytime soon...

'A Girl Made of Air' lived up to my expectations given the comparisons, but it also subverted them too: it's very much its own thing. The backstory of Mouse's mother Marina alone – and its impact on her relationship with her daughter – alone is deeper and darker than anything I've seen in many novels around this genre. This book and its characters are going to linger with me for a long time, I think.

Thank you to Quercus Books for sending me an advanced reader copy (ARC) of this book in return for an honest review.

An unnamed tightrope walker relates the story of her childhood in a post-war English circus and her rise to fame in New York. While the headliner of this tale is the ‘Greatest Funambulist Who Ever Lived’, 'A Girl Made of Air' is the story of several women: the Funambulist herself, her mother Marina, her mentor Serendipity Wilson, and Serendipity’s daughter, Bunny. Marina and Serendipity share similarly mythic origin stories—Marina washes up on a beach at the end of the war, naked and alone, and is always happiest in the water. Serendipity Wilson is found as a baby under a bush on the Isle of Man with a head of unrealistically luminous red hair—seemingly destined for a life as a performer. By contrast, the narrator is a neglected, friendless child, until Serendipity Wilson takes her under her wing and provides her with love, affirmation and purpose. At first, she strives to become the greatest funambulist who ever lived, but this ambition is overtaken by a more solemn quest—to find a missing child and make amends.

The story is told in fragments: diary entries, taped interviews, letters and Serendipity Wilson’s Manx folk tales. This may sound disjointed, but these aspects intertwine to create a rich tapestry of family history, myth, trauma, love and loss, and the narrator’s quest provides a momentum that blends the disparate pieces into an engaging story. There is an element of magical realism, but this is grounded by the circus setting: the visceral odours, the clamour of the crowds, the glitz and the grubbiness of this itinerant life.

It’s difficult to compare this book but some aspects reminded me of Alice Hoffman’s 'The Museum of Extraordinary Things', I also thought of Philippe Petit, the French high-wire artist, featured in Colum McCann’s 'Let the Great World Spin', and of course Serendipity Wilson’s stories put me in mind of Zoe Gilbert’s Manx-inspired 'Folk'.

For all the hyperbole of being described as the ‘Greatest Funambulist Who Ever Lives’, it is sad that we don’t see much of the narrator’s successful career. Her progress from Coney Island sideshow to notorious Broadway Cabaret star is only referred to in passing, but perhaps this is appropriate. Often childhood failures weigh more heavily in our recollections than adult success. Though she narrates her own story, the sense that the funambulist herself and all her achievements are as evanescent as air, adds a melancholic and wistful quality to this tale. Thankfully, there is an appropriately serendipitous ending to leave a lingering glow as the stage lights dim. I thoroughly enjoyed this vivid, lyrical and poignant novel.

A Girl Made of Air is a beautifully written tale of mystery, growth, and yearning.
Set at the backdrop of a travelling circus we follow our unnamed heroine “Mouse” as she recounts her life through letters, memories, fairytales, and heartache. Growing up with an assortment of family and fellow circus workers, most specially, Serendipity Wilson who takes her under her wing and teaches her to be a world-class funambulist.
A lot of books claim alliance with Angela Carter and Erin Morgenstern, and although a much straighter tale than anything Carter would weave, I did get the similarities. If anything I sensed a larger Katherine Dunn influence in the style and relationships of the book.
For anyone who is a fan of circus-set tales I would wholeheartedly recommend this book, and circus aside this is a wonderfully written and engaging tale of life and it’s twists and turns.

I’m weirdly mixed on this title!

I enjoyed the book, and found some of the writing really beautiful. It reminded me of Angela Carter’s work, and I’m a fan of that.

But... reading it also felt a bit like a chore. And I’m not entirely sure why.

The writing at the end was lovely.

** spoiler alert ** I always hope stories about the circus have that faded glamour,the smell of animals and more than a touch of magic.
This book had them all... it was full of magic.
Poor neglected child,almost bringing herself up,in a circus full of weird and wonderful characters.
I worried the spell might break when we left the circus,but it didn't,the story continued to be told,and a new idea began to dawn on me as to why,and to who.
So very nicely done,with short fairy tales thrown in,I sped through this book,and yes I did get shades of Angela Carter from it,but only in a good way.
So very very enjoyable.