Don’t be tricked; the circus is not the star of this show. Instead, larger-than-life characters draw a captive audience.
The circus gives a young woman with a unique condition a chance to reinvent her story.
Nell, who was born with a unique skin condition, feels “the familiar burn of eyes on her” as villagers react to the news that the circus is coming to their small town. She's used to being treated as if she was a “living curiosity,” the marks on her skin separating her from the rest of the world except for her brother, Charlie. Nell’s worst fears are realized when her father sells her to Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders, helping the showman capture her the night before the circus travels on. While at first Nell feels like a caged animal, fighting to be free again, Jasper’s vision of elevating Nell into a superstar—the amazing Nellie Moon, her skin speckled like the stars in the night sky—begins to change her perspective. “The dull reality of her life—the flower farm and the sea and Charlie—has begun to fog and vanish.” Macneal develops an intimate tale of passion, longing, and self-preservation set amid a bustling Victorian-era London, where oddities draw an eager crowd and P.T. Barnum’s performers are household names. This story is a slow burn, almost like a circus building toward its grand finale. Overburdened at first by overly descriptive language, the narrative becomes more captivating as Nell develops into a freethinking, inspired character. Jasper, the showman, thinks of the circus as “life, desire, amplified,” and it’s this desire reflected in the individual characters that will keep readers invested. Macneal does a solid job of weaving comparisons to Shelley’s Frankenstein throughout; the performers are diminished to monsters at times and at others they are at risk of growing more powerful than the man who invented them. The complex characters, their backstories and satisfying trajectories, make up for flowery prose and plotlines spun and quickly unraveled.
Don’t be tricked; the circus is not the star of this show. Instead, larger-than-life characters draw a captive audience.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-9821-0679-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Emily Bestler/Atria
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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