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buttermellow's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Abandonment
Moderate: Racism, Classism, Xenophobia, Body horror, Murder, Suicide, and Death
Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia
dryadsreadingnook's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia, Drug use, and Violence
Minor: Mental illness, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Bullying, and Emotional abuse
azrah786's review against another edition
4.0
[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.
**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
--
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
Graphic: Body horror, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Gore, Medical trauma, Death, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Acephobia/Arophobia, Medical content, Confinement, and Emotional abuse
laurareads87's review against another edition
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
Graphic: Death, Confinement, Torture, Body horror, Murder, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Gore, Suicide, Medical trauma, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Gun violence and Acephobia/Arophobia
Minor: Sexual harassment, Transphobia, and Animal cruelty
dobbsthedog's review
4.0
Received from NetGalley, thanks!
CW: racism/speciesism, xenophobia, acephobia, torture, forced institutionalization (probably more that I'm forgetting)
I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't quite what the blurb would lead one to believe, in that it was significantly darker. The blurb makes it sound like Jes escapes the bad guys, joins the space circus, deals with the bad blackmailing guy, the end? A whole lot more happens, some of which is fairly disturbing, especially when it comes to The Institute (where he escaped from). I don't want to say too much, as I don't want to spoil anything.
Something that I think the author did well is the world building. This is obviously set in space, on made up worlds, so while there obviously needs to be a lot of world building, it felt like it was done quite subtly. Like, things were mentioned, but it was just enough to give you an understanding, without over explaining, and it didn't feel like I was left wondering or confused by anything. I think it was also helped because so many things were the same as they are IRL; drugs, alcohol, the different circus acts were performing actual circus skills. I did find all of the different species a bit hard to envision, as there are 6 (I think?) different species, with varied skin colours and hair colours and other attributes, and I had a hard time keeping them all straight or getting a clear mental picture of them? That's probably just my lacking imagination, though...
So, the MC Jes is empathic and can control gravity. I really liked that he could control this fundamental force and, being the physics geek I am, it brought up some possibilities for me that did end up playing out. Also, Jes is asexual, which I found really interesting paired with his empathic abilities, being able to sense other people's sexual feelings when it is something that he himself doesn't experience, and how uncomfortable that made him. On the whole Jes seemed very comfortable with his asexuality, but there were a couple of places where he experiences some internalized acephobia, and it kind of felt like it didn't need to be there. Like, he's been comfortable with his identity, comfortable sharing about it, but then there's this blip where he's all 'what the fuck is wrong with me???', and it just didn't feel like it needed to be there. Despite those few blips of internalized acephobia, I really liked Jes' relationship in the book, it was so sweet and respectful and just gave me warm fuzzy feelings. I liked that overall in the world that varied gender and sexual identities/orientations are just how things are, there's no homophobia, though it is still a allonormative universe, which seems a bit weird?
As I said, I did really enjoy this book, though there were a few things that I feel like could have been doing a bit better? It kind of swung from fun, fluffy circus life to dark, blackmail, torture content quite abruptly. I also wish there had been a bit more explanation of The Institute, as well as how Jes was able to escape. It seems like there were a lot of details around how they were keeping him captive there, but then it didn't say how he managed to get around their devices that supressed his abilities. There's also some stuff at the end about The Institute and I was like 'WHY didn't this happen earlier, if they knew what The Institute was doing???'. So, there were a few things that just didn't seem to quite line up for me.
CW: racism/speciesism, xenophobia, acephobia, torture, forced institutionalization (probably more that I'm forgetting)
I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't quite what the blurb would lead one to believe, in that it was significantly darker. The blurb makes it sound like Jes escapes the bad guys, joins the space circus, deals with the bad blackmailing guy, the end? A whole lot more happens, some of which is fairly disturbing, especially when it comes to The Institute (where he escaped from). I don't want to say too much, as I don't want to spoil anything.
Something that I think the author did well is the world building. This is obviously set in space, on made up worlds, so while there obviously needs to be a lot of world building, it felt like it was done quite subtly. Like, things were mentioned, but it was just enough to give you an understanding, without over explaining, and it didn't feel like I was left wondering or confused by anything. I think it was also helped because so many things were the same as they are IRL; drugs, alcohol, the different circus acts were performing actual circus skills. I did find all of the different species a bit hard to envision, as there are 6 (I think?) different species, with varied skin colours and hair colours and other attributes, and I had a hard time keeping them all straight or getting a clear mental picture of them? That's probably just my lacking imagination, though...
So, the MC Jes is empathic and can control gravity. I really liked that he could control this fundamental force and, being the physics geek I am, it brought up some possibilities for me that did end up playing out. Also, Jes is asexual, which I found really interesting paired with his empathic abilities, being able to sense other people's sexual feelings when it is something that he himself doesn't experience, and how uncomfortable that made him. On the whole Jes seemed very comfortable with his asexuality, but there were a couple of places where he experiences some internalized acephobia, and it kind of felt like it didn't need to be there. Like, he's been comfortable with his identity, comfortable sharing about it, but then there's this blip where he's all 'what the fuck is wrong with me???', and it just didn't feel like it needed to be there. Despite those few blips of internalized acephobia, I really liked Jes' relationship in the book, it was so sweet and respectful and just gave me warm fuzzy feelings. I liked that overall in the world that varied gender and sexual identities/orientations are just how things are, there's no homophobia, though it is still a allonormative universe, which seems a bit weird?
As I said, I did really enjoy this book, though there were a few things that I feel like could have been doing a bit better? It kind of swung from fun, fluffy circus life to dark, blackmail, torture content quite abruptly. I also wish there had been a bit more explanation of The Institute, as well as how Jes was able to escape. It seems like there were a lot of details around how they were keeping him captive there, but then it didn't say how he managed to get around their devices that supressed his abilities. There's also some stuff at the end about The Institute and I was like 'WHY didn't this happen earlier, if they knew what The Institute was doing???'. So, there were a few things that just didn't seem to quite line up for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Racism, Torture, and Gore
Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia
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