Carnivale Of Curiosities - Aimee Gibbs - Top Book Pick!

Fantasy

Rating: 9/10

“It took three hours to kill Charlotte Bainbridge. An egregious amount of time for exsanguination.”

With an opening line like this, it should come as no surprise that if you choose to attend the Carnivale of Curiosities, you may not leave the same person.

A lot of people die in this book. The question for you to ponder is whether they stay that way. Whether or not the dead should stay buried is just one of the reflections that will demand your attention in this wonderous and magical tale.

In Victorian London, where travelling sideshows are the pinnacle of entertainment, there is no more coveted a ticket than admission to the Carnivale Of Curiosities. Cast with marvelous and eccentric characters, at the core are Ashe, its blood, Dita, its heart, Pretorius, its bones, and Lucien, its spark.

For a select few, the real show lies behind the curtain, for a price. Ashe is an illusionist, one with the power to grants wishes, or more accurately, Faustian deals. As to whether people see him as an angel, or a demon is entirely up to who summons him and for what purpose. He merely offers a key, what it unlocks his pure chance. As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for.

At the start of our story, he makes a deal to save the life of Charlotte, a young woman under the thumb of a vile man. A deal that will change everything for all of them in ways even they couldn’t have imagined.

That a first-time novelist created such a fascinating and intricate world, populated it with vivid, flawed, and fragile characters and constructed for the reader a lush and entertaining read from start to finish is nothing short of a marvel.

Book Pairing(s): First Bright Thing by J.R. Dawson, Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, Circus Of Wonders by Elizabeth MacNeal