The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus

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Pub Date 4 Jun 2019 | Archive Date 15 Aug 2020

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Description

IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards: Best New Voice: Fiction
(Silver Winner)
MIPA Midwest Book Awards Finalist (winner to be announced in June 2020)

Chelsea is determined to make it to her brother’s wedding. And she’s not going to let the fact that she’s been dead for two years stop her.

Joining with her mime friend from a New York City park and her ghostly mentor with forty years of afterlife under her belt, the three women set out on foot for San Francisco. Along the way, they are faced with joy, sorrow, and the haunting surprises of the open road. This humorous and lightly macabre journey explores relationships, personal burdens, and what it means to keep moving, even when your heartbeat has stopped.

IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards: Best New Voice: Fiction
(Silver Winner)
MIPA Midwest Book Awards Finalist (winner to be announced in June 2020)

Chelsea is determined to make it to her brother’s wedding. ...


Advance Praise

"A marvelous, surprising ghost story that celebrates the power of theatre to lift spirits and save lives. McFall's novel is an exquisite meditation on embracing the past and letting it go. This book will haunt you!" —Andrea Hairston, Award-winning author of Will Do Magic For Small Change and Redwood and Wildfire

A delightfully queer (in all possible senses of the word) and unexpected road trip story about friendship, loss, love, and the many kinds of family. I laughed, I cried, I cheered—it’s a show like no other. —Alex Wells, award-winning author of Hunger Makes the Wolf

"Immensely charming…The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus brings a lot of ideas to the table and manages to pay all of them off in satisfying fashion. It’s weird, lovely, dark, and familiar." —San Francisco Book Review

"Will take you from laughter to the verge of tears and have you rooting for her incredible and unconventional heroines all along the way." —Dawn Vogel, Executive Editor of DefCon One Publishing

"A moving and wonderful story about the importance of friendship and empathy ... both funny and profoundly moving." —Writer and Translator Maria Haskins



"A marvelous, surprising ghost story that celebrates the power of theatre to lift spirits and save lives. McFall's novel is an exquisite meditation on embracing the past and letting it go. This book...


Marketing Plan

This title is female and LGBTQ+ forward and we believe it should appeal to a broad range of audiences, both literary and genre. We're looking for general reviews on Goodreads, retail sites, and social media. The author is available for interviews, online or in the Oakland, California / San Francisco Bay Area.

This title is female and LGBTQ+ forward and we believe it should appeal to a broad range of audiences, both literary and genre. We're looking for general reviews on Goodreads, retail sites, and...


Available Editions

EDITION Ebook
ISBN 9781945009358
PRICE US$6.99 (USD)

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (EPUB)
Send to Kindle (EPUB)

Average rating from 31 members


Featured Reviews

4.25 Stars. This was really good! I have to admit that this book surprised me. I was hoping to enjoy this but I sure did not expect it to be so good. I knew nothing about the book ahead of time. From now until November I’m going to be reading as many paranormal type books as I can. I love this time of year. While I had no expectations about this book, it ended up being a real treat to read.

Chelsea wants to go to her brother’s wedding. She was excited about it when she was alive, and it’s even more important to her now that she is dead. Unfortunately, ghosts can’t ride in planes or cars so Chelsea has to make it from NYC to California by walking. Her ghostly mentor and her human friend (who can see ghosts) decide to make the long cross country trip with Chelsea. Can the three friends make it in time for the wedding?

The premise seems a little out there, and it is, but this story is so well done. The diverse cast includes a wonderful mix of LGBTQ and het characters. Each character is fully fleshed out, even the dead ones, and you feel such a connection to them all. The human friend who is a mime is also mute. This is the third book I have read in maybe 45 days that has used American Sign Language. It’s so nice to see in books and I hope this becomes more the norm.

This book was much more introspective that I expected. And I think the heart of the book is about the strong friendship of these three women. This book has all the feels. From scary moments with the dangers of being on the road, to exciting moments with other ghosts, to happy and sad moments that make you cry and laugh in equal measure. This book even had the cutest damn cat of all time.

This is not an easy book to explain because it is so different but it’s well written and just well done period. I have been complaining about not being wowed too much lately in books, this book wowed and absolutely impressed me. If you want a book that will make you think, will make you laugh and cry and want to go hug your loved ones, this is that book. I hope more people will give this read a chance; it’s too good not to.

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A quirky and lovely book about friendship, grief, anger, and love. When Chelsea, a ghost, decides to travel from New York to San Francisco for her brother's wedding--which was delayed because of her death two years earlier--she's unexpectedly accompanied by Carmen, also a ghost, and Cyndricka, a mortal woman who is one of the few in the world able to see and hear ghosts, and who is a mime. Together they encounter other ghosts, some in need of help and others who are a threat; a kitten; helpful and malicious people; and, finally, some truths about themselves, their pasts, and their futures. The characters are diverse in race, sexuality, disability, and more; there's a lovely emphasis on the value of learning languages and on questioning cultural norms. This would be a great book club read, or a parent-and-kids read.

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High heels, a patch of ice, a train… Chelsea’s life ended abruptly and not in a pretty way. But she won’t let death stop her from attending her brother’s wedding. Which means she needs to get from New York (an interesting place to be a ghost in, fyi) to San Francisco.

Being a spirit, she can’t take a plane nor a car, which go right through her, so she’ll have to walk (hover?) there. Two friends join her on her trip: Carmen, who died decades earlier and is sort of mentoring her into ghosthood, and Cyndricka, a homeless mute Black mime who, for some reason, can see and communicate with ghosts even though she’s not dead.

The relationship between the three travelers is both incredibly unusual and plausible. On their way to California, they also meet the cutest cat, other ghosts and living people, some good, some bad, or even dangerous. I loved Jamie, who sounds like the sweetest ghost ever even without a face. That’s one of the things I loved best about this novel, how the undead keep the appearance they had when they died and are not all ethereally perfect beings.

Despite the subject, there’s nothing heavy about the story, it’s more subtle and penetrating. I don’t think I can explain why I loved this book (yet another excellent debut) so much without giving too much away. It’s not about twists and surprises, it’s all about the way the feelings are built up, how they grow. Like most road trips (at least in books and movies), this one is both a journey cross-country and to themselves.

I took forever to get to this novel (dead people, anxiety, sadness…) and that was stupid of me since it’s made it straight to my favourite-books-of-the-year list. It’s one of the most poetic and charming novels I’ve read. It’s tender and bittersweet, it made me cry and smile at the same time.

The author mentions “the blessing of small miracles” at one point, and that’s exactly what this novel is.

I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

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