Today on Novels On The Run I have my book review for Circus Summer by Kailin Gow .
Enjoy!
Book Blurb :
Circus Summer (Circus of Curiosities Book #1) by Kailin Gow is a YA Dystopian Fantasy -
Releases July 2, 2012
In post-apocalypse America, every season, the Circus of Curiosities visits the city, bringing with it the most fantastic circus acts that are beautiful, majestic, curious, and death-defying. Every season performers for these acts are chosen from the young men and women in each town, trained, and sent to perform in a live grand performance, performed literally to the death. Two performers from Sea Cliff, a beach town at the outskirts of The Center find themselves chosen to be in this Summer's Circus Act. Both must win at any cost, but could they ignore their feelings for each other? Leela Sinclair needs to win in order to get to The Center where she can get medical help from the best physicians for her ailing mother, plague with a condition no one have heard of. For Zachary Nile, his reasons for becoming a performer at the Circus is more mysterious. Only the ringmaster and the Circus of Curiosities owner Dex Hightower (Dr. Dex) knows what the touring Circus is really about amidst the magic and splendor. Despite the Great War and the poverty surrounding the land except for the towns fortunate enough to be near the Center, Dr. Dex and the Circus performers all know, "The show must go on."
BOOK REVIEW by Michelle :
The circus is coming to the town of , Sea Cliff, and it is not your average circus. On the surface there are the usual events, flame eater, trapeze, high wire, knife thrower, clowns....but what is this Circus of Curiosities really about?
I did enjoy Kailin’s dystopian story, I have many questions that are bouncing about in my head. I am not saying this is a bad thing. I have a similar feeling after reading this book that I had with ‘The Hunt’ by Andrew Fukuda. The reader is brought into this story and away we go, the world building prior to the ‘away we go ‘ bit, we don’t have. We are fed bits and pieces , and things get revealed to us, but we still are left with not a clear picture of the set up of this world.
Invaders....well, this sounded like only one thing to me, yet this is still a bit of a mystery. We think we are getting a Hunger Games style, kids in a circus fighting to the death, or worst, but there are more layers to this story that are beginning to show themselves as I got closer to the end. I did have a tad confusion with some of the plot depth, surrounding the why these kids had certain stuff done.....I’m trying not to give anything away. Because we don’t really get the whole war, invaders etc.... this is the only reason I have some queries.
The Prologue gives us a quick insight to the danger of the circus that Dr Dex Hightower is ringmaster of, then the chapters start and we get to know Leela Sinclair, Thomas Tattenbaum and Zachary Niles.
I really like Thomas’character, he is Leela’s bff, we can see he feels strongly about her. Enter Zach who has been Leela’s school crush since she was little and things get complicated.
I really love Zachary too. He is very protective and so is Thomas, oh the conundrum for me...hehe!!
Kailin feeds us more imaginative writing as we read more. She has a very creative mind and she weaves these seeds through this story that will come to fruition in the sequels no doubt. I have not read any of Kailin’s works prior to this one, so this may be her style.
I don’t know if I really felt when children died if there was the emotional side brought into the writing. These kids do not really know what they are up against in the circus and some think they are there for a reason that maybe isn’t a reason to be there.
It is definitely an intriguing and very imaginative story, where, you want to know more about what unfolds. Where the book starts in your mind is kinda flipped where it ends.
Things are not what they seem, and what seems is not necessarily true and real. The fact is, this world they are living in , just got a whole lot crazier and a whole lot scarier.
Michelle
About Kailin Gow:
Kailin Gow is the author of over 100 books, with the majority of them for young adults. Her most popular series are: The Frost Series, PULSE Series, Desire Series, Wicked Woods, Steampunk Scarlett Novels, and more. A full-time author, she is also a producer, having worked in radio, television, and film. She grew up in Southern California, lived in Texas and England, and had traveled extensively around the world.
Links:
Website: www.KailinGowBooks.com
Blog: http://KailinGow.Wordpress.com
Twitter: http://Twitter.com/KailinGow
Facebook: http://Facebook.com/KailinGowBooks
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/KailinGow
Er, I can't see your star rating? I'm only asking because your review sounds a bit ambivalent to me (I know when you get really excited, Michelle) but I'm interested in 'circus' books so I wanted to find out what your star rating is.
ReplyDeleteHi Tien,
DeleteWell, cause I am one of the early ones to review this, I was keeping my rating out of it for the moment. I wanted just to write the review...hehe!! you caught me out:D I would say 3.75 - 4 stars I would give as there are a lot of Q's that bobble around in my head:D
Thanks for dropping by!
Mich
oh, that's not too bad... Added ;)
Deletethanks, Mich