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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
This book was everything I expected it to be, but at the same time, not what I expected it to be. It was your standard girl runs away to the circus thing and there were freaks in the side show, etc. etc. etc. But it sort of fell short of my expectations aside from that.
It just seemed... sort of boring to me. Like, I didn't hate it, but I didn't feel strongly about it. Mister was a cartoon villain and there wasn't really a lot of time spent with the sideshow stuff. It was just the story of a girl looking for things. I thought it would be a lot more exciting than it was. I thought there would be more substance.
I also can't decide if I like the way it was written or not. It was short vignettes about things that happened around the Wonder Show that were loosely strung together to form a plot. Sometimes these were told from other people's points of view and it just... I don't know, I don't think it did anything for me.
I guess I'm unfairly comparing this to the HBO show Carnivale. Crazy stuff happens on that show and I sort of wanted this to be Carnivale lite so it would be more appropriate for a YA audience. But it just wasn't. I guess I wanted a lot more out of this than I got. I probably would still recommend it to people and I'm glad I read it once, but I'm not sure this book is going to stay with me forever.
It just seemed... sort of boring to me. Like, I didn't hate it, but I didn't feel strongly about it. Mister was a cartoon villain and there wasn't really a lot of time spent with the sideshow stuff. It was just the story of a girl looking for things. I thought it would be a lot more exciting than it was. I thought there would be more substance.
I also can't decide if I like the way it was written or not. It was short vignettes about things that happened around the Wonder Show that were loosely strung together to form a plot. Sometimes these were told from other people's points of view and it just... I don't know, I don't think it did anything for me.
I guess I'm unfairly comparing this to the HBO show Carnivale. Crazy stuff happens on that show and I sort of wanted this to be Carnivale lite so it would be more appropriate for a YA audience. But it just wasn't. I guess I wanted a lot more out of this than I got. I probably would still recommend it to people and I'm glad I read it once, but I'm not sure this book is going to stay with me forever.
Originally published at www.apatchworkofbooks.com
If Scott Westerfeld's Uglies, James Dashner's The Maze Runner, and Veronica Roth's Divergent had a book baby, it would be Starters. Telling the story of Callie, a girl living in the future where a virus killed every that had not been vaccinated, Callie has no parents and no grandparents to help her, so she is responsible for taking care of her little brother...living on the run, trying to survive.
To earn money and care for her brother, Callie does what she said she would never do. She allows Prime Destinations, a creepy corporation run by the Old Man, to rent her body to an elderly person. It pays well and she's assured nothing can go wrong. Well, we all know how that ends, right?
This plot MOVES. I turned pages like crazy, wanting to know what happened to Callie and her family. The characters are all well developed and though not necessarily unique in its dystopian genre, the drama is there and the story will leave you wanting more. Apparently, the 2nd and last book in the 2-book series comes out in December. Yay!
If Scott Westerfeld's Uglies, James Dashner's The Maze Runner, and Veronica Roth's Divergent had a book baby, it would be Starters. Telling the story of Callie, a girl living in the future where a virus killed every that had not been vaccinated, Callie has no parents and no grandparents to help her, so she is responsible for taking care of her little brother...living on the run, trying to survive.
To earn money and care for her brother, Callie does what she said she would never do. She allows Prime Destinations, a creepy corporation run by the Old Man, to rent her body to an elderly person. It pays well and she's assured nothing can go wrong. Well, we all know how that ends, right?
This plot MOVES. I turned pages like crazy, wanting to know what happened to Callie and her family. The characters are all well developed and though not necessarily unique in its dystopian genre, the drama is there and the story will leave you wanting more. Apparently, the 2nd and last book in the 2-book series comes out in December. Yay!
Portia Remini is essentially an orphan. Her father ran off to follow a circus and her mother abandoned her long ago. Her distant, disapproving aunt eventually foists her off into a home for "wayward girls" run by a man known as Mister. He treats the girls as slave labor while looking like he's saving them. After a tragic accident and randomly finding the schedule card for it, Portia escapes on a stolen red bicycle to Mosco's Travelling Wonder Show, where she may find her father or be found by Mister, or find something else entirely.
I was immediately drawn in my the cover and the fact that it's about a circus. Wonder Show was a quick, fun read that touched on some deep and universal subjects. The characters were all amazing. It would be easy to demonize the sideshow "freaks" and make them into the monsters the crowd believes them to be. Although they don't mix well with the other circus performers, they were just regular people who want the same things as everyone else. They are neither perfectly good nor perfectly evil, but flawed. These characters were very often sad or angry, which I felt was realistic. Many of them couldn't do anything else because of their physical disabilities, so they were pretty much forced into a circus sideshow to make their living. I liked that the perspective would pass between characters every so often to provide to a glimpse into their mind.
Portia was a wonderful character who loved to tell stories and fairy tales, mixing and matching existing ones to make new ones or making her own entirely. Her imagination and creativity were amazing, but those around her didn't understand it and wanted her to rid herself of them and become a shell of herself. She saw the world through her own lens of fantasy and I enjoyed seeing her world through that lens. She also stood up for herself and had a firecracker of personality.
Wonder Show was hard to classify into one genre. It was a quest story mixed with gothic mystery, coming of age, Depression-era, and self discovery. Its only real flaw was that the ending felt a little rushed and I wanted it to be longer to more fully capture these characters and their relationships. I would definitely look for more releases by Hannah Barnaby.
I was immediately drawn in my the cover and the fact that it's about a circus. Wonder Show was a quick, fun read that touched on some deep and universal subjects. The characters were all amazing. It would be easy to demonize the sideshow "freaks" and make them into the monsters the crowd believes them to be. Although they don't mix well with the other circus performers, they were just regular people who want the same things as everyone else. They are neither perfectly good nor perfectly evil, but flawed. These characters were very often sad or angry, which I felt was realistic. Many of them couldn't do anything else because of their physical disabilities, so they were pretty much forced into a circus sideshow to make their living. I liked that the perspective would pass between characters every so often to provide to a glimpse into their mind.
Portia was a wonderful character who loved to tell stories and fairy tales, mixing and matching existing ones to make new ones or making her own entirely. Her imagination and creativity were amazing, but those around her didn't understand it and wanted her to rid herself of them and become a shell of herself. She saw the world through her own lens of fantasy and I enjoyed seeing her world through that lens. She also stood up for herself and had a firecracker of personality.
Wonder Show was hard to classify into one genre. It was a quest story mixed with gothic mystery, coming of age, Depression-era, and self discovery. Its only real flaw was that the ending felt a little rushed and I wanted it to be longer to more fully capture these characters and their relationships. I would definitely look for more releases by Hannah Barnaby.
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
This is an odd story and it will be a hard sell in the library...even without the non-teen-friendly cover. It will appeal to teens who are interested in a more complex narrative structure and magical realism. That said, this one is going to stick with me longer than the typical teen book would...
http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2012/12/2012-book-359.html
Portia is a storyteller; she has all kinds of stories, and loves telling them to her father, Max. Her own story spirals out of control when Max leaves her in the care of her aunt, and disappears. Aunt Sophia, a staid and consistent woman, has trouble controlling her imaginative niece, and Portia soon finds herself at a home for wayward girls, overseen by a cruel, loveless man, Mister. When Portia makes an enormous, unforeseen mistake, she runs away...to the circus.
I think this book was really well-written. Barnaby creates beautiful, episodic prose, and her characters are vivid and relatable. The beginning was interesting, the middle was interspersed with both intriguing voices and cumbersome reflection, and the ending was too abrupt for me (there's an awful lot of reflection before a lot of action happens), but overall, I think it was a good book. Filled with incredible characters, stunning prose, and a complex heroine, I think this book is worth the read.
I think this book was really well-written. Barnaby creates beautiful, episodic prose, and her characters are vivid and relatable. The beginning was interesting, the middle was interspersed with both intriguing voices and cumbersome reflection, and the ending was too abrupt for me (there's an awful lot of reflection before a lot of action happens), but overall, I think it was a good book. Filled with incredible characters, stunning prose, and a complex heroine, I think this book is worth the read.
Portia's life has been anything but ordinary. First, Portia is growing up during the Dust Bowl and times are tough. Her mother vanished when she was young. Her father stuck around and encouraged her penchant for telling stories, but as times grew worse, he left as well and Portia is stuck living with her spinster aunt. Try as she might, Portia's aunt is not prepared to deal with a willful, imaginative girl. Portia is then sent off to live in a home for "wayward" girls. It's a brutal place with little hope. But Portia is not your average girl and craves freedom more than anything. She is convinced that her father is traveling with a circus and is determined to find him one day. Eventually, after some tragic events, Portia finds the will to escape the home and sets off to join up with the circus/sideshow that recently passed through. She figures that will be the best way to begin her search for her father.
While her father isn't with this particular outfit, Portia joins up with the sideshow anyway. Since she isn't a "freak" or a "human oddity", she has to take one of the few other positions available. She quickly fails at the domestic aspects of keeping a sideshow running, but her quick thinking and talent for storytelling land her a job with the head "talker" (the guy who draws people into the sideshow and speaks on stage). Bit by bit, Portia becomes ever more immersed in the sideshow until it becomes apparent that this is more than just looking for an absent father. Just when Portia is trying to decide what her next move will be, the secrets from her past catch up with her.
I really enjoyed this quirky tale of sideshows and their inhabitants. The setting is amazing and the narration entirely charming. While most of it is told by an omniscient narrator, there are excerpts from Portia's notebooks, documents and letters and narration from a variety of colorful characters. I love the setting; there are entirely too few books out there set in depression-era sideshows. It's historical fiction with a defiant flair.
While her father isn't with this particular outfit, Portia joins up with the sideshow anyway. Since she isn't a "freak" or a "human oddity", she has to take one of the few other positions available. She quickly fails at the domestic aspects of keeping a sideshow running, but her quick thinking and talent for storytelling land her a job with the head "talker" (the guy who draws people into the sideshow and speaks on stage). Bit by bit, Portia becomes ever more immersed in the sideshow until it becomes apparent that this is more than just looking for an absent father. Just when Portia is trying to decide what her next move will be, the secrets from her past catch up with her.
I really enjoyed this quirky tale of sideshows and their inhabitants. The setting is amazing and the narration entirely charming. While most of it is told by an omniscient narrator, there are excerpts from Portia's notebooks, documents and letters and narration from a variety of colorful characters. I love the setting; there are entirely too few books out there set in depression-era sideshows. It's historical fiction with a defiant flair.
1930's carnival side show, creepy authoritarian dude, a sweet maybe love story, this book is like a YA version of HBO's Carnivale and I like it. Alot. I thought the writing was very strong and had a folktale vibe that went along with the main theme of stories that we create about our lives and who we are. The romance was light and very sweet. I also found the world building really strong and the setting very vivid from the sinister Mister's house to the traveling show. Really liked this book.
pg. 152 "How's that for irony? I can reach just about anything, except the ground. Life sure is strange." - Jim the Human Giant
pg. 171 "...she thought she could feel something - a buoyancy, a lifting of the ground under her feet, keeping her upright. Perhaps this was the physics of faith, the knowledge that the earth was moving and so was she."
pg. 191 "I will never be free. Unless I'm alone." - Violet, a "normal"
pg. 152 "How's that for irony? I can reach just about anything, except the ground. Life sure is strange." - Jim the Human Giant
pg. 171 "...she thought she could feel something - a buoyancy, a lifting of the ground under her feet, keeping her upright. Perhaps this was the physics of faith, the knowledge that the earth was moving and so was she."
pg. 191 "I will never be free. Unless I'm alone." - Violet, a "normal"