itsjennie 's review for:

Pantomime by L.R. Lam

4.0

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-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: No

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Pantomime is a bittersweet, queer coming of age story full of magic, misfits, and found family. It follows Micah, an intersex teen who is forced to run away from home to escape his controlling mother. He happens upon a circus and is swept away by the spectacle, ultimately convincing the ringmaster to hire him on to train as an aerialist.

There are a lot of things I liked about this book. Micah is such a sweet character, and seeing him find a place and start to flourish among the circus folks was probably my favorite part. Despite his struggles with his physical differences and his upbringing being forced to live as a girl, he has a clear, positive self image that is very refreshing. Any conflicts that arise due to him being intersex are a result of societal pressures rather than any internalized hatred. The messaging was clear but not overdrawn and I can imagine it resonating a lot with younger readers, especially the themes of self discovery and acceptance (and a bit of bi panic!).

The only places this book fell a little short for me is around the pacing and the fantasy elements. The first half of the book switches back and forth between present and past, and I found it a little hard to keep up momentum, but once the timelines converged the story was very engaging to the end. As for the fantasy elements, they are repeatedly referenced but ignored by the main character until the very end, so we still don't learn very much about them. I imagine the next two books will dive deeper into the lore. One yellow flag for me is that this book hints that Micah, and perhaps intersex people more broadly, are actually not human at all but some other race entirely. I kind of get where it's going with that but don't know if it's the best approach.

Also notable is that this edition is significantly revised from its original back in the 2010s. I haven't read the original, but after reading and enjoying Samantha Shannon's Bone Season revisions I am interested to see if this will become a wider trend for revitalizing older series for a modern audience.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for this honest review.