Title: Circus of Wonders
Author: Elizabeth Macneal
Publisher: Atria
Year: 2022
Genre(s): historical fiction
Part of a Series: No
Rating: 
Why I read it: Once Upon a Book Club selection
Summary: In the Victorian era, circuses filled with oddities and “freaks” are all the rage. Jasper Jupiter runs one such circus with the help of his brother, Toby. When Nellie is sold to him by her father, Jasper transforms her into a star. Nellie’s fame soon grows and Jasper feels he’s on the verge of achieving his greatest dreams. But when Nellie’s star starts to eclipse his own and his own brother starts to fall for her, will Jasper’s ego be their downfall?
Review: I really wanted to like this book more than I did but I just couldn’t.
Ultimately, I think the changing narrators really held the plot back. Especially as Macneal seemed to determined to keep rotating between them so that when someone’s plot really started to heat up, we had to cut away to another character’s plot. The book was already divided into parts – why couldn’t there have just been one continuous narrator for each section instead?
Or as I thought while reading it – maybe it’s time for third person omniscient to return as a narrator style?
The book summary on the jacket also made it seem like a romance but I really couldn’t even call it a secondary genre. Nell’s romance with Toby doesn’t propel the story forward. And really, it’s not very well developed. We just seem to be told that they are having a romance but it seems more like Toby is infatuated with Nell and she’s using him for sex. I never really felt much of a connection between either of them.
The parts about Nell gaining more confidence and friendships in the circus are wonderful. I think if the entire book had been about that, it would’ve been worthy of another star. Maybe even five stars, depending on how much more of an active character Nell was. Because she really only became active towards the end and by then, the story was pretty much over.
Honestly, I felt this was more Toby’s story than Nell’s. He has an arc that starts to give him independence from his brother and to almost escape their rather toxic codependency. And he needs to make peace with his past, which he starts to do during the story. I think I was most interested in his plot than anyone else’s.
As for the history, this felt very well-researched and incorporated some real life people such as Queen Victoria. But all the members of Jasper’s circus are fictional but based on real people who were in the circus. It shows the duality of how they could forge a life for their own based on the circus but how they were grossly mistreated as well. I think if Macneal focused more on that as well and maybe showed Nell dealing with that more directly, the story would’ve had a lot more depth.
Bottom line: A good story that never really lived up to its potential.
Sex: Some with some details.
Moonlight Musing
Did you ever dream of running away to join the circus?
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