Initially it catched my attention beacuse the idea of a misterious magical circus that just pops up here and there sounded really exciting, plus the cover was really pretty.
However, i am sad to say that in many ways it did not delivered, at least to me. At first the set up was interesting, but then not much actually happened. The plot kinda stagnated, the romance of Celia and Marco felt like it came out of nowhere, since they only met a few times, then suddenly they were madly in love. The scene at the bal when they kissed for the first time was great, and i tought we gonna finaly get to the point, but then once again they didnt even met for like a year.
The biggest appeal of a magic circus would be the mistery behind it, that might get unwrapped gradually. but for the reader there were nothing misterous about it, we knew everything about it from its very begining. Propably this is why i liked Bailey’s story line the most, i think a story about an ordinary person who gets swept away with a magic circus beacuse of a prophecy could be a fantastic story.
The few times something actually happened it was great, wich makes me wish the book was a bit more eventfull. For example the scene where Chandress starts to suspect that something is not okay and sweeps thru Marco’s room and finds his magic book, just for Marco to show up, threathen him and erease his memory, was a really tense and cool scene. If you think about it a slightly diferent story like this from the POV of Chandresh could also work. Like he wants to creat an extraordinary circus, but his assistant turns out to be some wizard who highjackes the whole thing for his own shady goals and keeps mindcontrolling people, but maybe Chandres keeps a journal and pieces things together even when he keeps having his memories ereased and tries to somehow fight back. Meanwhile Bailey’s equalent gets invited by Pixi to come with the circus, beacuse he is a factor the wizard didnt counted with, wich makes him the one chance thru wich they could free the circus from the wizard.
Damn now i really want to write this but a few elements would just be too similar.
Anyway, also it really annoyed me how there was no information what the tournament even is, i guess it was to keep us curious, but when it was revealed i only tought “well thats dumb”. Like what even is the point of this all? This two ancient wizards really have nothing else to do than to train two aprentices until they are more powerfull than Dumbledore, make them have jobs, then wait 20 years until one of them drops dead for some reason. ??? Someone recommended this book to me by saying that it resembles to hunger games beacuse two lovers have to take part in a deadly game, but they are wizards and its in a circus. Wich sounded insane, i cant possibly imagine how could such a fun and exciting premise made to be this dull and boring.
Also it bothered me all the way thru how apparently this world is suppose to be our world, and people doesnt know magic exists, Prospero and the others pretend that their shows are just clever tricks. Except he turned the napkins of the audience into birds, made them fly around, then turned them back into napkins. Why does everyone still pretends that these are just tricks?
The staff of the circus had to know about magic since most of the tents are very clearly magical, plus the entire circus gets transported thru magical means. But we kinda skipped that part, i felt like it would be only natural to see how all these hundreds of people reacted when they found out that magic isnt only very real, but one of their collegues could might as well be a demigod. Thiessen told Celia that he doesnt want to know how her tricks work, but then she fixed his broken clock by just touching it, then changed the color of her scarf, doesnt that counts as revealing her secret? Since its obvioulsy real magic, and how come Thiessen didnt reacted in any way to this insane world view shattering revelation?
The same goes for how everyone in the circus stopped aging, and most of them didnt even cared, like yeah one woman stepped in front of a train and her sister at least started to ask questions, but everyone else treated this phenomenon like its just a slightly concerning rainy weather. How come they didnt all flooded to Celia, the only person they know who does magic.
Also i really dislike how Bailey’ story ended. He got connected to the circus, but apparently its a deal that lasts forever? And he only had like five minutes to decide. Even if he wanted to save the circus, it definitely wasnt fair for him, especially since apparently he cant even leave the circus since Marco put that ring into his hand (why even?). What does “forever” even mean? Only 3 names got taken out of the immortality book, does this really mean that they all gonna work in the circus forever like its the Flying dutchman with Baily being Davy Jhones?
Not like immortality is a bad thing on its own, many people would love to have it, but the staff still wasnt asked about this all. (Also once again this set up of a circus posessed by two ghosts and run by an immortla staff could also be an awesome book).
Also this just gonna be nitpicking, but what magic users are even doing in this world? Even Celia and Marco have incredible power, shapeshifting, mind controll, healing from any injury instantinously. I cant dare to imagine what their masters might be capable of. And these wizards apparently really doesnt have any effect on the world? Even a single one could take the whole world if they tried, or become the richest man on the planet thru any business if they use magic.
Anyway, thats enough ranting, what are your opinions?
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by kkungergo