A famous funambulist tells the story of her life to an interviewer, from beginning in an English circus to Coney Island and stardom. As the book unfolds, we learn there is more to the main character’s (known only as Mouse) motivation.

There’s a whole host of interesting supporting characters such as Serendipity Wilson, Marina and Manu. In fact, as their backgrounds are revealed I couldn’t help but feel the book would have been better focusing on one of them, in particular Marina and her challenging life. Mouse by comparison doesn’t quite have the same sparkle to her, something that she acknowledges in the book but supposedly overcomes in her later years, though that part of her life story is barely covered.

I enjoyed some of the scenes set in the circus and hearing the legends that have arisen around the characters but was hoping for some more fantasy. The narrative is interspersed with fairytales from Serendipity Wilson’s childhood, I usually enjoy this sort of thing but found them a bit artificial and lacking in this case. This book was a bit darker at times than I had been expecting, this made for some interesting turns but it never quite seemed to flow.

The big reveal at the end also failed to surprise me, after the midpoint of the book it did all become a bit predictable. The elements I had enjoyed the most went by the wayside or became secondary factors and the second half was a bit harder to get through.

I’ve still given it three stars as I really enjoyed some of the characters and the initial setting. The overall story was solid but was just lacking in that extra bit of magic (figuratively and perhaps literally) I would have liked to make it all the more unique.

I listened to the audiobook version, the narrator very easy to listen to and did a great job with accents and voices.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this was going to be a magical fantasy but it is a lot darker than I expected. The audio format worked really well as it is written as tales interviews, news, journals and letters. This format usually confuses me but as an audiobook it worked really well and the narration was amazing.
The story itself I struggled with, I wasn’t really interested or invested. I wish there was more like the descriptions of tightrope walking but this book also goes into the sexual encounters which I really didn’t like. They almost made me stop reading. I was expecting it to be more about a circus but it’s darker, there’s secrets and it shows a darker side of human nature. I think one of the other reasons I didn’t enjoy it much as I thought was because I’d built it up in my head as a fun circus story. There’s trauma on this book and I know people will enjoy it but it just wasn’t for me.
Overall the audio was amazing and I liked the narrator. I also thought it worked really well as an audiobook. I would recommend this to people who like darker fiction.