A Girl Made of Air

  ‘'Let's begin with hope, then. My words are a labyrinth into which we can wander. As I write these tales, I can follow each path, each fallen leaf, in the hope they might take me to the person I seek.''
And I thought I would absolutely love this book but I ended up bored to tears and frustrated...
Mouse, our narrator, takes us into the heart of circus life. Her mother, Marina, is a famous ‘'mermaid'' and ‘'tamer of alligators''. Serendipity Wilson is the one who actually takes care of Mouse and teaches her how to be a funambulist because Marina simply and utterly loathes her offspring for reasons undisclosed (to me, at least...) for 275 pages. The themes of serendipity, isolation and independence spiced up with the use of fairy tale elements should have produced a far more interesting result. However, I was unable to appreciate the story, the characters or the writing. 
Please, when you want to make use of Titania, Oberon and any other Shakespearean play, proceed with caution. Ignorance is horrifying.
The never-ending, repeated - every - other - page pseudo-feminist message became extremely tiring. All the constant whining and misery and self-loathing exhausted my poor mind and I fear that Mouse is not the most interesting of narrators. And why does every mother hate her child in this story?
The chronicle of Treblinka was almost dull, devoid of any trace of solemnity. Not to mention that it felt like a cheap gimmick to justify a mother's cruelty. I've had enough of writers turning the nightmare of the Holocaust into a literary fad to add a supposed depth to their below-average stories. When the writing is melodramatic and pseudo-grandiose resulting in a written form of a low-quality Meditteranean (no countries named, I'm being politically correct...) TV soap opera, exploiting History and themes done to death won't really help...
Two stars for Serendipity's Manx tales which deserved a book of their own. I'd be more than happy to read it. This novel, in my opinion, was a thundering disappointment...
Serendipity Wilson's Tales:
The Termagant Wife: A tale about a feisty, no-nonsense, all-around brilliant queen who refused to be silenced by her ignorant husband.
The Wife of Ballaleece: A young woman is carried away by the fairies and her husband has to put up with a shrew. And I don't care about Wilson's stupid ‘'message'', I felt sorry for the poor couple...
The Sad and Tragic Story of Nora Cain: An enchanted island, a newborn baby and a tragic love in a story rich in the spirit of the sea and the islanders' superstitions.
Fairy Cakes: A violent, haunting tale of a squad of mischievous fairies and a girl who became wise the hard way...
Many thanks to Quercus Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
 

First of all, I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In the beginning of this book, I was really unsure if I would like it. The format of the story is an older woman being interviewed about her life story. Typically, this is not a format I particularly enjoy. However, around 40% through, I really began getting invested in the story and where it was going. I'm honestly surprised at how much I liked this book. It's not very character driven, which is one of my first qualifications of a good book.

This book follows Mouse, a young girl born in a circus family. She is an outcast and a loner who later becomes a funambulist. She recounts her life story, detailing the history of her parents, as well as the woman who came to raise her. I won't go into to much detail about the plot so as not to spoil anything.

The plot of this story was captivating. I went into it thinking this was a YA book about a cute circus. Boy was I wrong. It is a very dark book, with a character laden with a dark past. The characters felt a little distant from the reader, which I think is due to the narrator, as well as the interview format of the book. However, that didn't make the plot any less poignant.

One of my biggest gripes with this book is the rampant fatphobia throughout. The narrator constantly brings up weight in regards to other characters, making it known how gross she thinks fat people are. It ended up being distracting and gross.

I would recommend this book to someone looking for a dark circus story about a woman trying to navigate life when she wasn't given much to begin with.


TW: alcohol, alcoholism, assault, blood, child abuse, child neglect, emotional abuse, fatphobia, hallucinations, misogyny, needles, physical abuse, pregnancy, prostitution, rape (on the page), sexim, sexual assault, sexually explicit scenes, starvation, suicide (on the page), war

Oh how I wanted to love this book! It promised magic and adventure, mystery and myth and I couldn't wait to open a page and find myself in a circus filled with quirky characters - where the impossible is possible. Unfortunately, like the a certain funambulist, my experience of this book fell a bit short of my expectations.

I listened to the audiobook (very kindly provided by Netgalley) and maybe the narration and delivery just didn't work for me, but I never felt invested in any of the characters. The dialogue was stilted and didn't feel natural. The story dragged in places and involved great detail (like an icky, rather disturbing ‘love scene') and other times felt rushed - especially towards to end.

I really enjoyed the myths and stories dispersed between the main plot, and felt the investment I craved when we learned about Marina's past. It was written well - albeit a bit scattered. Maybe if I'd gone into this with lower expectations I would have enjoyed it more.