Reviews with content warning for Death - The Circus Infinite

[This review can also be found on my BLOG]

**I received a proof copy from Angry Robot Books in exchange for an honest review**

CW: violence, blood, gore, injury, torture, medical trauma/content, body horror, confinement, death, xenophobia, alcohol/drug use, emotional abuse, acephobia
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A great space fantasy adventure that at its core is a story about acceptance and finding where you truly belong.

The Circus Infinite follows Jes, a mixed-species fugitive who has run away from the Paragenetic Institute of the 9-Stars, a research organisation that has been experimenting on him and his ability to control gravity.
With a bounty on his head he escapes to a far off moon, Persephone-9, where he finds refuge with a circus troupe and does his best to lay low and make a new life for himself. However, with great powers come those who wish to manipulate said powers and Jes soon becomes mixed up with the local crime boss who leaves him with two choices – compliance or a ticket back to life as a lab rat.

From the endearing found family at its heart to the great queer representation and fascinating supernatural abilities, there was so much about this book that I loved!

First and foremost it was wonderful seeing an asexual panromantic protagonist whose identity and experiences were not shied away from on page. The fact that Jes also has empathic powers further enhanced how this representation was explored and Wong wove this through the overarching storyline brilliantly.

"...sometimes we have to choose which feelings to focus on. Focus on the love and let that guide you. The rest will sort itself."

The story for the most part takes place in one corner of the vast universe that Wong has imagined and while the handful of locations we come across are beautifully described I do feel like this element of the worldbuilding could have been fleshed out a little more. I absolutely loved all the parts that took place in the circus though, it had me wishing I could experience it all for real!

What really helped shape everything were the various species of the 9-Star System, making up society that we are introduced to and their individual customs and cultures. They not only gave the circus its magic and wonder but the interactions of the different communities brought to light a handful of important discussions around the themes of power and prejudice.

"He likes the way he looks all dressed up, but he's also a little embarrassed. It doesn't really feel like him. But, he reasons, who is that anyways? For so many years he's been controlled by everyone else. Shouldn't he take the chance to be someone new?"

There is a predominantly light tone to the story however, there are also some very dark and grim moments too. Interspersed amongst the primary storyline are flashbacks of Jes’ past, including some of his time at the Institute, which gave more context to the plot as well as Jes’ personality and the versatility of his powers (which were so cool but also horrifying at times).
Though these moments also helped to add nuance to the character relationships in the book that were beautifully written and developed. The found family aspect is so wholesome and I really loved following Jes on his journey of finding trust, love and acceptance in others.

The only issue that I had was that within the last 100 pages or so the story seemed to lose its flow a little. Big parts of the plot were solved so easily that it made everything seem rushed when compared to the rest of the book.

That aside this was a really entertaining read with a good balance of character driven narrative and action and I would welcome more stories set in this universe or with these characters in the future!
Final Rating – 4/5 Stars

Content Warnings

anxiousnachos's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

4.0

The Circus Infinite is the next in the line of books thoroughly convincing me Angry Robot is the best scifi publisher right now. This has a bit of a slow start for me that I struggled to get into (though that may also be down to the fact my brain is totally fucked right now) but it well and truly made up for it with the incredible found family rep, that I think went well beyond how this trope is usually used in books. Found family and community and interconnectedness felt like it was used as a concept to built this world around, it was embedded in aspects of the worldbuilding, embedded in the events and experiences the main character went through, and it just really elevated that trope for me and made for some very beautiful moments. The ace rep is also absolutely fantastic.

Content warnings: forced medical procedure, medical experimentation, medical trauma, confinement, abusive parents, death, animal cruelty, sex work, violence, indoctrination techniques, blood and gore, torture, suicide, murder, xenophobia, sexual harassment

Content Warnings

beforeviolets's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

CW: torture, fictional racism/xenophobia, loss of parent (father and mother, a character finds out about the passing of their mother during the plot of the book), emotionally abusive parents, death of grandparents (past), alcohol, drug use, bullying, violence, death, murder, blood, sexual content, gore, body horror, vomit, suicide (brief, onscreen), nonconsensual medical procedure

Thank you to Angry Robot for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

What a whimsical story! Like a mixture of City of Shattered Light by Claire Winn and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, but make it adult!

This story follows Jes, an asexual panromantic mixed-race empath escaping from a life of torture and experimentation. It has diverse representation, found family, heists, and an adult coming-of-age narrative. Jes's personal growth was extremely well-done, from the self-discovery of his powers to his journey through experiencing a romantic relationship for potentially the first time.

I will say, the book as a whole didn't blow me away, but I found the story engaging and the characters easy to love.

A few nit picks:
-The writing was written in third person but in the style of first person, which made it a bit difficult to read at times. (Like the way it was written, I kept expecting to see the pronouns "I/me" rather than the "he/him" pronouns on the page.)
-The book as a whole could've just been 100 pages shorter. With the amount of heist and action, the pace could've been a lot faster and started a lot earlier. It took me a bit to really get into the narrative and it made the stakes feel unearned at times.
-The word "suss" or "susses" used as the ONLY word for Jes's empath abilities.

Content Warnings

laurareads87's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong was one of my most anticipated debut new releases for 2022 and it did not disappoint. The story follows Jes, a mixed-species ace young man with mysterious and apparently unprecedented powers who is seeking community and a place to belong having escaped from a facility where he was subjected to violent medical experimentation. While psychic abilities of various sorts do exist in this universe, Jes’ have manifested in very unusual ways which are both more powerful and less constrained by location than would be expected. Jes finds himself on a ‘pleasure moon’ and ends up joining up with a circus, where he quickly forms friendships but also finds himself embroiled in the manipulations of the local crime boss.

There is a lot that I really liked about this book. I appreciate the diverse queer representation in this book, including characters of diverse orientations and gender identities; I also appreciate the nuance with which, on one hand, Wong has created a future in which many of earth’s prejudices and oppressions seem to have greatly lessened (albeit with the different planets/societies in this book having differing degrees of acceptance), but on the other hand in which individuals continue to navigate acceptance, judgment, experiences of self-doubt, internalized negativity/phobia, and relationship dynamics that feel really relatable. The world-building is really excellent: the federated society of mostly-but-not-all humanoid worlds is well developed given that interplanetary politics really isn’t the focus of the novel, and the circus / moon setting comes alive. I also rather liked the pacing, with conflict really building over the course of the book — while this means there were some places early on that seemed to have insufficient conflict, the intensification of the crime boss antagonist’s behaviours and demands gets very... well, intense.

I do struggle a little bit to describe the overall tone of the novel. There are ways that The Circus Infinite is a relatively feel-good, found family story: Jes is a protagonist that it is quite easy to cheer for — he’s really, at his core, a good person who cares about others — and the circus cast and crew are, in the vast majority of respects, precisely what he’s looking for; by contrast, the antagonists are pretty straightforwardly evil. There are points at which the novel reads more YA than adult based on the themes and tone. However, the book also definitely needs a lot of content warnings, as there is quite a bit of very graphic violence and very heavy themes.

Overall, while I did find some elements of The Circus Infinite inconsistent, I enjoyed it overall. On this basis, I’m looking forward to reading whatever Khan Wong publishes next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Angry Robot for providing an ARC in exchange for this review.

Content Warnings

siannas_second_library's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

4.25

I was provided a free ARC of this book via NetGalley

This was fun! 4 stars

I am always a fan of queer found families and this one was particularly likable. That’s definitely the strongest aspect of this book: the characters. I really love them. They are magical while staying relatable, strong willed but understanding and flawed but able to change. I also really love that the main character is asexual and panromantic, we just need that more in books. The Love-story between Jes and Bo is also really cute, realistic and uplifting.

Even the Villains were great, evil in a way that felt realistic and therefore even more terrifying.

The Plot is good too, though I wouldn’t say great. It’s fun and well paced but the different story-lines feel like they are always taking attention away from each other so we got neither enough of the circus nor the crime-boss story-line. I really liked the flashback chapters though, those were great.

And the world is fantastic. Different alien-species with different psychic powers, a whole moon dedicated to pleasure, a sentient star?! Good stuff.

The writing is a bit clumsy in the beginning but it get’s better and it’s a really enjoyable read.

Since I’m one of the first people to review this I should give some trigger warnings for this book because there are a few heavy topics in this.

I have to mention one specific scene (light spoilers). There is a scene were the asexual main character is forced to go to a sex-club (he is being blackmailed). He is not alone, two friends are with him (they are not the ones forcing him), and nothing bad happens but he feels very uncomfortable and throws up once they’re out. I just wanted to warn you in case that is not something you want to read.

If you are not affected by these things I can really only recommend this book, it was a delight to read and I hope we get more set in this world and/or about these characters.

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