Some books are good. Some are great. And some are perfection. Circus of Wonders is the latter. The writing is exquisite and the story so compelling, immersive and atmospheric.

The year is 1866.

Nell was born with birthmarks covering one half of her body. She's made to feel ashamed and has only her brother Charlie to depend on.

When Jasper Jupiter's Circus of Wonders comes to her small town, her father sells her and she is taken by force to join his band of curiosities. Before long she finds she is happier than she's ever been. She feels part of a family and her role in the show is to fly - she soars and draws crowds by the hundreds, even attracting the Queen. And she finds love with Jasper's brother Toby, a gentle man.

But Toby is haunted by the past and a dark secret that only Jasper knows. A secret that means he can never truly be free.

As Jasper's ambition grows out of control he becomes tyrannical and grows to resent and then hate Nell for the adoration she receives.

In the dramatic closing chapters, there is a choice to be made - love or family.

I was transported as I read this amazing book, I could see the sights and sounds of the circus show, I could feel the pain of Nell and Toby, and could even feel some empathy towards Jasper, a broken man by the end.

This book is a triumph, every word a pleasure to read.

Perfect for fans of Erin Morgenstern and Jessie Burton's books! Circus of Wonders is packed with delightful characters and charismatic settings!

This is an engrossing tale of love and emotional ties. It is totally unique, I think and looks at an aspect of Victorian history which isn't really talked about - the fascination with people who are 'different'. Buying and selling them, showing them to the public. I was hypnotised by the quality of the writing, the descriptions so vivid the images were clear in my head, watching the story evolve like a movie. A fantastic read!

I am not a fan of stories about circuses so I was a little unsure about this book when I was gifted this book to read by NetGalley but I had heard great things about the author.

It is a beautifully written story and Elizabeth Macneal is undoubtedly an excellent writer and story teller. The vivid descriptions of the circus and characters in in really made it come alive for me and I loved Nell’s character.

I did feel at parts that I was reading the greatest showman and that people would burst into song at any moment although they never did. From trapeze acts to bearded ladies it was so very similar with a greedy circus owner, Jasper being one of the main characters in this story.

It also veered off at one point to be reminiscent of a Frankenstein story with the undoing of Jasper, his bizarre creations and his descent into madness. All in all not an original story for me because of these references.

It’s a story told from the point of view of Nell, Toby and Jasper and was an enjoyable and fast paced read.

When I finished the book I thought what a disappointing and poor ending then the more I thought about it, I realized it was the only ending that could have been and was actually quite brilliant!

I loved Elizabeth Macneal’s first book, The Doll Factory, so I was keen to read her second, Circus of Wonders, set in 1866. I liked the circus setting and the variety of characters. The main character is Nell, the ‘leopard girl’, who is both shunned and ridiculed by the people in her village because of the birthmarks on her face and all over her body. When the travelling circus visits the village her father sells her to Jasper Jupiter’s ‘Circus of Wonders‘ as it includes a ‘freak show’, highlighting the very different attitudes of the times from those of the present day. This makes for uncomfortable reading at times, as Stella, the bearded lady, Brunette, the Welsh Giantess, and Peggy the dwarf who drives a miniature carriage are treated as objects of curiosities, acts to be bought and sold, just as Nell was sold.

It’s narrated from the perspectives of the three main characters, Nell, who became a star as ‘Nellie Moon’ flying high above the circus ring suspended beneath a balloon, Jasper, the ambitious circus owner and Toby his younger, gentler brother. Jasper is the driving force as he is forever looking for new acts to draw the crowds. His ambition is to gain a pitch in London, hoping the Queen might hear of him and want to see his show. He knows that the queen is the ‘freak-fancier par excellence, who has summoned Aztecs, pinheaded people and dwarves to her Palace’.

The brothers had both taken part in the Crimean War, Jasper as a soldier and Toby as a photographer. Toby is haunted by memories of the war and in particular of what happened to Dash, Jasper’s friend, during the siege of Sevastopol. The horror of the war has never left him. Although the circus is the main focus of the novel, it is the mystery of what happened in the Crimea and the relationships between Jasper, Toby and Dash that interested me the most and made me want to read on.

This is a novel that transported me back to the Victorian period, full of the atmosphere of both the circus and of war. It reveals the insecurities, fears and isolation that the characters suffer. It emphasises the exploitation of ‘freaks of nature’, who draw the crowds and the power of illusions. I like the mix of fact and fiction and the way that Macneal interweaves the details of the Crimean War with the circus narrative. However, I don’t think it’s quite as good as The Doll Factory, which totally captivated me with its dark tale of obsession, pulsing with drama, intrigue and suspense.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Pan McMillan, Picador for my review copy.

Set in the mid 19th Century, Circus of Wonders is a sumptuous, immersive, wonderous tale of Nell, a poor young woman whose world revolves around her brother, and the sea. Nell has unusual markings on her skin, and this brings her to the notice of Jasper Jupiter, who has brought his Circus of Wonders to Nell's town. Nell's father sells her to Jasper Jupiter, as his very own leopard girl, and this act of betrayal changes Nell's life forever. So begins her journey, travelling with the circus, and as she becomes more famous, so her life becomes ever more complicated.

This is a beautifully written story of love and redemption, power and fate and I loved it!

I delved in to this book not really sure what to expect, but overall I quite enjoyed it. A well written story of a circus and it’s egotistical ring master and a whole host of amazing characters.

The Circus of Wonders totally lived up to my very high expectations. Set in the Victorian era where curiosities such as those exhibited by P.T. Barnum were big business and drew in huge crowds, The Circus of Wonders looks at the darker side of these spectacles. In a world where anything, or indeed anyone, can be bought or sold, who benefits? Who loses? And who has the power, really?

What I love most about this author is her flawless characterisation and her beautiful writing. The narrative is written alternately from showman Jasper’s, his brother Toby’s and performer Nellie’s points of view. Each of them is so complex, and we are offered sometimes quite emotive insights into their, backgrounds, personalities, relationships and, consequently, their actions.

If there are some Greatest Showman vibes, Jasper is certainly no Hugh Jackman, though there are some references to Barnum and Jenny Lindt within the plot. Like Barnum, fame and greed are huge drivers for Jasper, and his past is marked by tragedy. But he’s more ruthless, and quite cruel at points, increasingly so as the storyline develops.

I became really quite attached to some of the supporting characters, including Stella and Pearl, and I raced through the last half of the book because I was desperate to find out how it was going to end.

With thanks to Picador for gifting me a digital copy of Circus of Wonders to review.

‘A wolf cannot stop being a wolf. Instinct cannot be suppressed’
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This novel was wonderfully and vividly imagined and captivating and thought-provoking from the beginning.
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From the choice of opening quotes, exploring whether a river flowing through the same place is in fact the same river, Elizabeth Macneal invites the reader to contemplate how time and experience may change a person.
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Set in 1866, Nell, born with birthmarks speckling her skin, never quite fits in, in her coastal village home. But when sold to a travelling circus, she both falls in love with Toby (the brother of her ‘owner’, Jasper) and the sense of purpose and self-worth her new life brings.
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Macneal writes from the perspective of Nell, Toby and Jasper...and through their reflections and doubts endears the reader to her characters, feeling with them in their vulnerability, self-doubt and pain.
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Through their thoughts Macneal also introduces themes of identity, belonging, loyalty and love to the novel. As a reader, we are called to question how we embrace diversity and challenge the stories we tell our children...the prince who was punished by becoming a beast, the mermaid forced to adapt to her princes surroundings. But also through these characters own ponderings, the philosophical question is posed to the reader whether instinct can and should be truly be subdued for love.
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The novel moves at pace for the first two thirds of the novel, but I must admit I felt that this pace was lost for the final third and both the plot and characters plateaued. One particular story arc felt that it didn’t pack the punch the earlier pages promised and felt like a little of an anti-climax.
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Having said that, Macneal is a clever writer and an exciting story teller, and there was so much to enjoy and appreciate in this novel. I would like to thank Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for providing me with an eARC of this novel.

I loved the Doll Factory and I loved this novel.
The author is a talented storyteller and delivered a fascinating story, thought provoking and entertaining at the same time.
Great characters and plot development, a vivid and well researched historical background.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thank you to NetGalley for my advance copy.

I loved the Doll House, and really wanted to love The Circus of Wonders, but I just... couldn’t. Throughout it felt a little flat, a little predictable. Characters described experiencing moments of chaos and panic through prose that never felt particularly tense, so it all felt a bit removed.

That said, I did finish it and enjoyed the world that was created. There were some excellent characters - Stella, Jasper, the jackal - but besides these, I sadly couldn’t bring myself to really care about any other characters or plot developments.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the advanced copy!

Dnf-ed around 50%. I really wanted to love this book and it was close, but in the end, I was really interested in half of the plot.
Everything related to Toby and Jasper was super intriguing, and I kept reading only because of them and their past history. What happened?? It kept me going for longer than I thought.
Because everything related to Nell didn't really catch my interest. I haven't finished the book, so I can only talk for the first half, but it was a good old special snowflake journey, and I never really got what Nell had that made her so special, so much <i>more</i> than any other member of the circus.
Also, I couldn't care for the romance, or what could be the romance. I'd have rather read about the development of strong friendship and solid bonds between Nell and the troupe than this instant and sudden thing she had for The Guy (to stay spoiler free).

It wasn't bad, and at other times I could have maybe finished it but these days I just can't go on if I'm not 100% hooked.
Some people will probably like this book very much though, so give it a chance!

Wonderful!
I absolutely loved this novel!

This exceeded my expectations and I was immersed in this reading experience from the first word to the last. The characters had great depth, were not stereotypical and rather relatable as they navigated the challenges of their circumstances. The circus setting and time period combined perfectly to balance that sense of curiosity, wonder and fascination with the pervasive undertones of human cruelty.

This was absolutely mesmerising...so much so that it's now nearly 4am & I've not been to bed yet, as I couldn't put it down! 🎪

What a truly magnificent tale this was, beautifully written, very well researched & an utter delight to read.

''𝙃𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪"

Living curiosities sounds so much better than freaks doesn't it?

If you're a lover of 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙬𝙢𝙖𝙣 you'll love this book!

Called a freak because of her birthmarks, young flower picker Nell gets sold by her father to Jasper Jupiter's Circus of Wonders. She is described in newspapers as the eighth wonder of the world & as her fame soars to dizzy heights, Jasper is invited along with his curiosities to showcase them in front of the Queen. Jasper will go to great lengths for his fame, but will it all come at a cost for young Nell.

Many thanks to Netgalley for my ARC in return for my honest review.

𝗜 𝗴𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮 5 ⭐ 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴

I loved The Doll Factory so I was over the moon to be approved for this book.

Once again, Elizabeth takes us effortlessly into the lives of Nell, Toby, Jasper and many other members of the circus. She takes us all over the place emotionally, I loved Nell, and felt for her how much her life was determined by everyone else. I think I felt the most for Jasper though - what a fool he is! But what a dream he has....

I just loved this book, I was utterly swept up in it.

My thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the copy in exchange for an honest review

Elizabeth Macneal has written a superb historical fiction novel that is full of drama and adventure. Set against the Victorian obsession with oddities, freaks, and wonders, many captivating story threads bring us mystery, intrigue, and the enthralling draw of circus life and performance. Nell is a young woman living in a southern English coastal town with her brother and father. She was born with birthmarks across her body which received her the nickname ‘Leopard Girl’ and ensures her life is one of loneliness, ridicule and ostracization. Her only comfort comes from her brother while her father considers her to be a curse.
“It begins with an advertisement, nailed to an oak tree. ‘Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders!’ someone shouts. ‘What is it?’ ‘The greatest show on earth!’ “
When Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders comes calling on their village, Nell’s father takes the opportunity of selling her to the circus for twenty pounds. Jasper owns and runs the travelling circus and his brother plays a supporting role without feeling ownership or authority. The relationship between Jasper and his brother Toby is quite complex and while there is a bond of family duty there are destructive tones of jealousy, manipulation, dominance, threats of abandonment, ridicule and retribution. The acute feelings of jealousy that are exposed from their childhood through the Crimean War, where Jasper was a soldier and Toby a war photographer, to their involvement in the circus, is never too far away and always bubbling under the surface. During their time in the war, they met a charismatic friend, Dash, who enthralled Jasper with his plans for a circus, but he disliked Toby and described him as a ‘dullard’ - probably very accurate. These relationships were to end in tragedy and a secret that Jasper and Toby maintained, although a price is exacted for the silence and the truth of how Dash died.

Initially distraught with her sale to the circus, Nell finds herself amongst other people considered freaks but develops a belonging and a place where she can learn to celebrate her uniqueness. Along with the bearded lady, the tall, the strong and the small, she joins her surrogate family. Jasper eventually makes her a star and the undertone of jealousy finds another outlet and the three-way relationship between Nell, Jasper and Toby becomes more complicated where desire and attraction are not equally or noticeable applied.

The full cast of characters is wonderfully developed with their mix of flawed and admirable traits. The relationships they form and the motives, duties, and concern they have is fascinating as events unfold that regularly challenge their lives. Circus of Wonders is a novel beautifully written with incredible depth and an engrossing storyline. It provides an authentic atmosphere with many of the Victorian views on power, ownership, society and exploitation on display.

I would highly recommend this book and I reckon Circus of Wonders is set to be an outstanding best-seller for 2021. I would also like to thank Picador, Pan Macmillan, and NetGalley to provide me with a free ARC copy in return for an honest review.

Circus of Wonders

‘Do you like stories?’ Nell asks, and the child nods. She picks up the book of Fairy Tales, weighs it in her hand. She remembers Charlie’s wafting hands, trying to fix her, to make her ordinary. She puts it back, takes a breath. Instead, she tells Pearl about a mermaid with a blue-scaled tail. ‘Her tail was so beautiful,’ she whispers, ‘that if men caught her, they’d dry her out and place her behind a sheet of glass, and thousands of strangers would pay to see her.’ She tells her how the mermaid swam in the deep waters where nobody could find her. ‘A little like you in this wagon,’ she says. Pearl smiles, and Nell carries on, explains how a prince’s ship was blown off course and he fell in love with her. He longed for his own tail so much that he visited a witch who ripped his legs from his body and stitched on fish scales with a sharp needle’.

Those of us go loved Elizabeth MacNeal’s first book The Doll Factory have been waiting impatiently for the next novel to spring from her imagination. The wait was worth it. I am always drawn to books about circuses and freak shows - it follows on from research I have done at university in the Gothic, Grotesque and Monstrous module and for my dissertation on disability. Not all works that feature freak shows, in whatever form, have their research based in disability culture. While The Greatest Showman has Hugh Jackman (swoon) and some incredible songs, it doesn’t really tackle the ethics of such an enterprise as Barnum’s. Yes, the freaks had a great song about being their authentic selves and not being hidden away, but it never tackled that deep inequality in their relationship. The act of singing This Is Me, led by the bearded lady, shows their strength and character when Barnum doesn’t allow them to attend the party with dignitaries. However, it doesn’t address the fact that they are getting paid to display themselves as different and whether or not this is a choice. MacNeal credits Barnum as an inspiration to her showman, Jasper, but she does see the problems inherent in a concern that displays ‘other’ bodies for entertainment. She then explores the concept in difference using the circus performers, fairy tales and concepts of monstrousness. She does this while writing a story that is thrilling, full of strong characters and vivid description.

Our heroine, and Queen of the Moon and Stars, is Nell. As Jasper’s troupe visit the small village where her family farms violets for confectionery, he notices Nell’s wild abandon as she dances with her brother. This is an after show party for the performers, but there are locals too, enjoying the atmosphere and partaking in a lot of alcohol. Nell is usually shy, covered in birth marks head to foot, she tends to stay where she isn’t seen. However, the alcohol she tries unleashes a wild abandon she rarely displays in public. Jasper sees her as a leopard girl, covered in spots and imagines how she would look in his circus. Eventually though he settles on Queen of the Moon and Stars; Nellie Moon, with a skin covered in constellations. He approaches Nell’s drunkard of a father and offers him twenty pounds for her. He creates a caravan for her, beautifully decorated and with three books for her to read. Then with her father’s help, kidnaps her, locks her in the caravan and trundles off with the rest of the circus into the night. His plan is to make her fly, constructing huge feather wings on a harness and a system of ropes and pulleys to give the impression she is soaring above the crowd. His troupe are ‘performers’ not just exhibits to be wheeled out, poked and prodded. Jasper believes that with Nellie Moon he might start to earn the sort of money that would make a trip to London viable. Maybe a show tent in one of the pleasure gardens? Most of all he’d like to entice Queen Victoria to see his show, because she is a famous ‘freak fancier’ and what a coup it would be if Jasper’s Circus of Wonders was her first choice of entertainment since Albert died.

I loved the way the author used the books in Nell’s caravan to bring in the idea of fairy tales and how they victimise people who are different. When Nell is reading to Pearl, an albino little girl that Jasper buys, she manages some retelling worthy of Angela Carter - including The Little Mermaid quoted at the beginning of my review. Nell thinks about the book of Hans Christian Andersen tales she would read with her brother Charlie:

‘They read about Hans My Hedgehog, half-boy, half-beast; about the Maiden without Hands; about Beast and his elephant trunk and his body glittering with fish scales. It was the stories’ endings which always silenced her, that made her pull her dress over her fingers. Love altered each character – Hans shucked his hedgehog spines like a suit, the maiden’s hands grew back, Beast became a man – and Nell pored over the woodcuts so carefully, staring at those plain, healed bodies. Would her birthmarks disappear if somebody loved her?’

The thought would make her tearful even then, but she didn’t know why. Stella, the bearded lady, tells Nell that she will find her strength in performing. It’s a way of taking up space in a world that doesn’t see them. She gives voice to the dilemma at the heart of the ‘freak show’; instinctively, it feels wrong to exhibit someone for their difference, but where else would they earn so much money and live so well? There were horror stories and the author has done her homework on this. Sara Baartman, a slave from South Africa, known as The Hottentot Venus was exhibited all over the world until her death. She was then bought by naturalist George Cuvier who dissected her, then pickled her genitals and kept them in a jar. Barnum was known to treat animals appallingly, but he also exhibited a freed slave called Joice Heth after removing all her teeth! He named her the Oldest Woman in the World. However, for every horror story there are famous ‘freaks’ such as Siamese Twins Chang and Eng who earned so much from being exhibited that they bought a plantation for themselves, and their families. It isn’t just the money though, as Stella explains:

‘There’s power in it,’ Stella says, twisting a curl of her beard around her finger. ‘In what?’ ‘Performing. You control it. How they see you. You choose to be different. Nobody else looks like me, and I’m glad […] I was a hungry gutterling, not worth a gentleman’s spit. And because of this, the source of all my powers—’ she smiles and pulls on her beard – ‘I’ve been to Vienna and Paris and Moscow, and done as I please. I’ve made enough money to make my mother turn in her grave. I could give you a thousand names of wonders whose lives are richer, bigger, brighter, because of shows like this.’

Nell can’t imagine feeling like this. She has always kept her body covered and stayed in the background. She’s used to being called ‘leopard girl’ or being asked if her mother was startled by a leopard during her confinement. She is used to being whispered about and pitied. How will she feel about her body being displayed, flying high above the audience? Being pointed at and talked about, her body on posters, matchboxes and as figurines. Yet, when she gets there, she does feel what Stella is talking about.

‘Someone throws flowers into the sky. A bouquet dips and falls. She watches these people, grown fat on wonder. They have seen a giant juggle, a bearded woman chirrup like a blackbird, a dwarf ride a miniature pony, tumblers and contortionists, fire-eaters and dancing poodles, and she is the finale. They admire her, want to be her. All her life, she has held herself like a bud, so small and tight and voiceless. She has not realised the potential that lies within her, the possibility that she might unfurl, arms thrown wide, and take up space in the world.’

I loved this awakening in Nell, but there’s so much more. Luscious descriptions of costumes and performers made me feel I was there. The sounds and smells of the fairground were also really vivid. The flashbacks of Jasper and his brother Toby’s time in the Crimean War were horrific and I loved the interplay of the brother’s roles as watcher and doer. The author plays with the idea that cameras never lie through Toby’s photography, how he chooses his images and for which audience. Toby was an interesting character who never truly fits anywhere, not even in his natural place as Jasper’s brother. His difference doesn’t show, so when he tries to make his otherness visual will the other performers accept him? Jasper himself is mercurial, full of ideas and with a lot of success, but always reaching for more to his detriment. I found his relationships to women interesting, he has no lovers and his ties with his friend Dash were the strongest he’s had with another person. He seems to see women as things to display, to possess and assert power over, but not as allies or equals. Yet, in his troupe, he has some of the strongest women you could imagine. There are some parts of the ending that were inevitable and others that were unexpected and left undone, which was perfect. I loved this book so much, I’m going to buy a very special copy of it and keep it forever.

This will be appearing on my blog this weekend, the link to my blog feed is attached below.

'Freak Shows' (a term I find uncomfortable to write in 2021) were a Victorian obsession. Initially they were regarded as something 'low brow,' but Queen Victoria's interest increased their desirability and newspapers of the time wrote of "derformito-mania" sweeping the nation.

Elizabeth Macneal writes beautifully and movingly about this fascination in 'Circus of Wonders'. Nell, is sold to Jasper Jupiter's Circus of Wonders for £20 by her father. This is both for the money, and because the ignominy of having a daughter who is different is too much. In the circus Nell is trapped and under Jasper's control, but she also has more freedom. The birth marks that speckle her body become a constellation of stars, and her act wows audiences. Queen Victoria invites her to visit at Buckingham Palace.

Alongside Macneal's depiction of Nell, there is also the story of two brothers - Jasper and Toby. They have been joined together through life for various reasons, but both at times despise the other for restricting them. Macneal's portrayal of their experiences in the Crimean War, before they establish the circus, is brilliant. Their perceptions of one another and abilities to both wound and love are beautifully written. Both are flawed but strong. Both have dreams they can't attain.

Surrounding all of this is a cast of interesting and beguiling characters, some of whom could have whole novels to themselves. I wanted to know more about Peggy, Brunette, and particularly Stella. Macneal is also able to conjure up place and atmosphere amazingly well. I could imagine myself in the wagons, by the fire, and in the pleasure gardens.

In short, this book really captured me. I was very sad when it came to an end!

‘She flies like icarus, and they are waiting for her to fall.’

I was lucky enough to get an advance proof copy of this one, which tells the story of Nell - a young woman from a small English village whose skin is speckled with birthmarks. Nell is kidnapped when Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders comes to town and her father sells her to Jasper Jupiter, who is desperate to become the world’s greatest showman. As Nell settles into her new life, she makes friends with the other human wonders, and begins to fall for Jasper’s brother Toby and starts to thrive in her new life.

I raced through this one in just a few days. I found it to be an entertaining and thought-provoking read, with some truly fascinating characters. I was really taken by Nell and found myself rooting for her from the very first page, and the short chapters told through the viewpoints of Nell, Jasper and Toby kept me hooked and dying to find out how Nell’s story ended up. Circus of Wonders is not short of human drama, that is for sure!

I was really interested by the flashbacks to Jasper and Toby’s days out in the Crimea, it really got me thinking about the role of war photographers and I feel like I may now need to add some non fiction to my TBR about the Crimean War and the Victorian period in general. Elizabeth Macneal writes so beautifully, I will definitely be looking out for a copy of The Doll Factory after this! I’d also like to give a special mention to how gorgeous the cover is for Circus of Wonder – I hear there are some beautiful editions of this one available. Recommended!

Circus of Wonders follows a woman born with birthmarks all over her body. Her appearance causes her to be shunned by her community and because of this her father decides to sell her to a travelling circus.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I usually love stories about the circus and this didn't dissapoint.

The writing and the descriptions of the circus and the performers are so vivid and colourful and the setting was brought to life.

I liked Nell I thought she was a great central character. I connected to her and her story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC!