Summary:
"The grandeur of the traveling circus is at its peak in the early 1920s when sixteen-year-old Laila Vilonia is searching for an escape from her bleak future. Behind the gates of the legendary Marvelle Circus, she is thrust into a mysterious world she never knew existed—a paradise populated with outcasts. It’s in this glamorous new home that Laila sparks a controversial romance with notorious sideshow performer, "The Disappearing Man," and learns just how dangerous her new life can be.
Touring the picturesque eastern coast of America, Laila’s immersed in friendship, vaudeville, festivals, sequins, and serial killers. But behind the curtain, a sadistic plan is brewing that will crack the very foundation upon which she’s become so dependent."
My Thoughts:
Okay, for the most part I enjoyed this story. Laila had a difficult life and chose to escape it by joining the circus, even if she had to lie a little bit to do so. Now, I have read a couple other circus books (Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus and Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants come to mind first) and Morgenstern had a magical story that entranced me and I didn't want to walk away (probably why I own it in hardcover, e-book, and audiobook) and Gruen started with that mysterious prologue and the book had that realistic and gritty quality to it, which I enjoyed.
I feel that Kayne did a great job describing the aerialist routines and I could picture those rather well, but there were a few things that kept popping up and bothering me, making me focus on them, and that drew me out of this otherwise good story. Showtime takes place in 1918 and yet the Marvelle circus supposedly has a 20,000 grandstand-seat 3-ringed circus tent going on. That seemed completely unrealistic to me and it just bugged me. Also, I remember towards the end in the whole major climax moment and stuff the bad guys (I won't say who because I don't want to ruin the story) tell Laila that Marvelle is making a fortune off her, because they charge $5 a seat, which with the 20,000 seats is $100,000 a night provided that the show is sold out. In 1918 $5 would have been quite a bit of money, and I certainly don't think a circus would charge $5 PER SEAT.
Another point that got me (and I'm sorry that it sounds like I'm being mean in this, but I was asked for an honest review and I'm going to give it) is that Kayne really needed to go through the novel one more time in edits before self-publishing. I completely respect that she self-published and seems to be getting quite a few good reviews on this, but I did browse through some of the reviews and found a few people saying basically the same thing as I am now. Kayne has a bad habit of using the wrong homonym of certain words, particularly saying passed instead of past, and mixing up taught and taut. It isn't something that the spelling and grammar checker of programs such as Microsoft Word will necessarily catch.
Okay, but I will say that I really did enjoy most of the characters. They had thought out backgrounds and their mannerisms were consistent throughout the story. I really enjoyed James, but I felt that he disappeared for a while through the middle and I kept wondering where he was and why he wasn't hanging out with the group of people. I fell for Dex, just like Laila did, and I am definitely eager to learn more about him, as well as his twin Seth, who I think of as the evil twin, really. Oh, and Kayne did such a great job with Laila's mom. I really did not like her.
So, this book had its pros and cons, and overall I am going to give it a 3.5/5. With some additional polishing on the passed/past, taught/taut and the seating and pricing issues, I would probably up my rating to a 4 or a 4.5. I can say that I have already put the second book, due out in Spring 2014, on my to-read list.
Showtime at Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/showtime-chloe-kayne/1112974167?ean=2940015697551
Showtime at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/SHOWTIME-Marvelle-Circus-1-ebook/dp/B009EDU37E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1356669686&sr=8-2&keywords=Chloe+Kayne
I feel that Kayne did a great job describing the aerialist routines and I could picture those rather well, but there were a few things that kept popping up and bothering me, making me focus on them, and that drew me out of this otherwise good story. Showtime takes place in 1918 and yet the Marvelle circus supposedly has a 20,000 grandstand-seat 3-ringed circus tent going on. That seemed completely unrealistic to me and it just bugged me. Also, I remember towards the end in the whole major climax moment and stuff the bad guys (I won't say who because I don't want to ruin the story) tell Laila that Marvelle is making a fortune off her, because they charge $5 a seat, which with the 20,000 seats is $100,000 a night provided that the show is sold out. In 1918 $5 would have been quite a bit of money, and I certainly don't think a circus would charge $5 PER SEAT.
Another point that got me (and I'm sorry that it sounds like I'm being mean in this, but I was asked for an honest review and I'm going to give it) is that Kayne really needed to go through the novel one more time in edits before self-publishing. I completely respect that she self-published and seems to be getting quite a few good reviews on this, but I did browse through some of the reviews and found a few people saying basically the same thing as I am now. Kayne has a bad habit of using the wrong homonym of certain words, particularly saying passed instead of past, and mixing up taught and taut. It isn't something that the spelling and grammar checker of programs such as Microsoft Word will necessarily catch.
Okay, but I will say that I really did enjoy most of the characters. They had thought out backgrounds and their mannerisms were consistent throughout the story. I really enjoyed James, but I felt that he disappeared for a while through the middle and I kept wondering where he was and why he wasn't hanging out with the group of people. I fell for Dex, just like Laila did, and I am definitely eager to learn more about him, as well as his twin Seth, who I think of as the evil twin, really. Oh, and Kayne did such a great job with Laila's mom. I really did not like her.
So, this book had its pros and cons, and overall I am going to give it a 3.5/5. With some additional polishing on the passed/past, taught/taut and the seating and pricing issues, I would probably up my rating to a 4 or a 4.5. I can say that I have already put the second book, due out in Spring 2014, on my to-read list.
Showtime at Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/showtime-chloe-kayne/1112974167?ean=2940015697551
Showtime at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/SHOWTIME-Marvelle-Circus-1-ebook/dp/B009EDU37E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1356669686&sr=8-2&keywords=Chloe+Kayne
Other Readings:
I'm all excited because my Christmas packages came in the mail today. My grandma always writes me a check for $25 for Christmas and then I can get whatever I'd like. This year I decided on getting myself a copy of Jim C. Hines's Libriomancer because I couldn't continue without my own copy, and then I decided on Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes. I have heard great things about the book and I can't wait to dive into it. So, I think that's all for now and I'll be back tomorrow for my regularly scheduled From the Stacks post.
No comments:
Post a Comment