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A review by dobbsthedog
The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong
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