Welcome to the freakshow
Bewertet mit 4 Sternen
I have to admit, I completly forgot about Amanda Hockings. Some years ago, she published this strange, horrific series called "The Trylle Series - Switched, Torn and Ascend" about a girl finding she is a Troll and becoming the queen over them. That series was so bad, I couldn't help but read them all. I enjoyed this serie in a strange "oh this is the worst, I have to read all night" way. After I finished that, I basically erased the author, and the books, from my mind.
2016, on a cold November night, little me was browsing Netgalley in search for some titles to read during my upcoming vacation, when I saw this beautiful coverart. There just is something about circus and carnival settings that make my heart skip a beat. The promise of a girl living on a carneval, set in the eighties with some spooky things happening was just too good. My eyes found the author and I admit I laughed. She was still writting? Brilliant! I had to read that! Thankfully I also got approved to this title, 2 months in advance to the publishing date. And as I am confessing so much already, here is another confession: I read it so fastly, was so enthralled in the story, that I finished it a day before my holiday was about to start.
Mara was way more likable then Wendy from the Trylle, that shouldn't matter, I know, and it still does. With Mara alone you see the developpment the author went through. Hockings knows how to paint Maras world for the reader, and it is easy to get lost in it. Nothing really new about it, everyone knows that kind of sideshow she is describing, which makes it so so easy to envision it all. There are many things the reader already knows. We know there is gonna be a lovestory involved. We know even thou she claims not to have any powers of her own, she'll have some powerful stuff going on later. We know something is wrong with the place they end up at. But many things stay a mystery. While I found it a little too much instalove with Gideon, it's a nice pace later one and his secrets are very well kept. I wasn't anticipating its reveal and got suprised! Next to her involvement with Gideon, the main relationship is with her mother.
I loved the bond between them. Her Mom is beautifully pictured and even with a family situation as strange as theirs, it was a perfectly family feeling.
Also the huge mystery about the town itself was well introduced. Whats behind is was originally enough for my taste.