Author: Leslie Parry
Published: 2015
Language: English
Pages: 320
Rating: 2/5
Summary:
Set in New York in 1895, this is the story of four young outsiders, among them circus perfomers, a night soiler and a woman escaped from an asylum, whose lives come together one fateful night.
Review:
I am not convinced by this book.
There is so much going on in this book that it's hard to know where to start, and I think this is its downfall; we follow all of four main characters, all very different. We've got a circus, a poor boxer, a mysterious baby, an asylum, a crazy mother-in-law, opium dens, you name it. It's all in here and the story drowns in it.
I think it's very difficult to have so many main characters and do them all well, and this does not achieve that. They're interesting, but difficult to connect to. I could also see where the story was going very early on and by the time I got halfway through, I just wanted to be done with it already. The writing does redeem it quite a lot though; I really enjoyed the descriptive style of it.
I think a lot of people would like this book though and maybe I am a bit harsh in my rating, but I stand by it. I'd recommend giving it a go if you think it sounds like something you'd like, because the majority of readers do seem to enjoy this.
You can read more about it on Goodreads
