Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival. Yet even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus-city, Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the Festival’s Freak Show.
But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that—illusions, and not truly real. Or so she always believed…until one of them is murdered.
Desperate to protect her family, Sorina must track down the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn’t actually exist. Her search for answers leads her to the self-proclaimed gossip-worker Luca, and their investigation sends them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance, and into the most sinister corners of the Festival. But as the killer continues murdering Sorina’s illusions one by one, she must unravel the horrifying truth before all of her loved ones disappear.
3.5 STARS
I had little to no intentions to pick this book up anytime soon, but I had seen some pretty great reviews of it so I caved and ended up requesting it from my library! I am happy I did because although this book is not a perfect one, I had a lot of fun reading it! However, for some reason it took me far too long to finish this book. But I'll get into that a little more later. Before I begin talking about the characters I want to mention that the diversity in this book is really great. Sorina is bisexual, Luca is asexual, and Nicolette is a lesbian. I liked that these parts of them are pointed out and apart of them but also treated normally. I am loving more and more fantasy novels with queer characters that are just living their lives.
First, the characters. I thought Sorina was a fine main character. I didn't feel a specific connection to her at all but I did like some of her character traits like the loyalty and protectiveness of her family. She is determined to figure out who is killing her family members and she doesn't let anything or anyone distract her from her mission to solve the mystery. I am all about headstrong female characters and I thought Sorina fit the bill. She was independent and resourceful so although I didn't have any sort of connection to her I respected her. I also loved her illusion tricks and I would have liked to see more of them honestly. Luca, our love interest, was a character I originally thought I wouldn't like but he did grow on me. I liked his jinx-work and his abilities. Their moments together were charming and their romance grew naturally. I was worried that because this is a stand alone fantasy book the romance may suffer some insta-love moments but I don't think that it did. I enjoyed some of Sorina's illusion family, but I don't think we got to know them enough fully to really care if they lived or died. I wanted more of Tree, who was the obvious best illusion of the bunch. I honestly felt more for Sorina because she was losing her family than I did for the illusions themselves.
The plot is super interesting and what honestly kept me reading. Although I didn't feel much emotion either way if the illusions died, I was deeply invested in who was killing them and how. It was a very unique premise and I think it did its job in keeping me interested in the mystery from beginning to the end. I expected some twist and turns throughout the story and although there were some I think it was a bit too obvious. I also think that some of the parts of the story could have been better explained. I could never really picture Gomorrah which made things difficult. Also, I would have enjoyed a more carnival atmosphere. I would forget that we were supposed to be located in a carnival because it's talked about so little. And honestly it felt more like a festival than anything else. I would have liked more world building. I wish the jinx-work was better explained, especially when it came to how Sorina could see without eyes (it is described that the parts of her face from her forehead to her nose are flat). The world building was lacking and a lot of things weren't explained clearly.
The writing was good at some moments, like the dialogue and interaction with the characters. Also, the food description made me hungry basically constantly. But other times, I found that the story dragged and got slow at times. Which is why I think it took me so long to get through this book. It's not very long at around 370 pages and it should have taken me a couple days at the most. But I started it on July 19th and I'm writing this review on the 28th. So it's been over a week, which is pretty insane for me and I was a bit concerned I'd be in a reading slump before BookTube-A-Thon. But I don't think that is the case because over half way through I got in the groove of things and I ended up really enjoying the story as a whole. I just think the pacing was a bit off for me. I also would have liked a better description of the illusions. I thought some were done really well and they stood out, even ones that didn't have a lot of time on the page, while others who had a bigger role in the story were hard to picture. There was also this political conflict subplot I didn't care about at all and honestly took away from the story for me.
I feel like I'm ragging on this book, and that's not my intention. Especially since I did enjoy a lot of the aspects of this story. If I didn't, I would have DNFed it early on. It's the author's debut and I think it reads like a debut with really great potential. I think if we had a better explanation for some things, more world building, and some pacing changes this book could have easily been a four or five star read for me. The author is an amazing storyteller and I am excited to pick up her other book and any others by her. I honestly think this book would make an amazing movie or TV mini series. The visuals that I think are lacking in the book would be beautiful on screen, the story is engaging and addicting, and this way we can dive deeper into the different illusions.
Overall, I would say I recommend this book for the mystery and the unique premise. I do think it's important to go in knowing that it could be slow paced for you and that the world-building and explanation of magic system stays a bit fuzzy till the end. I think if you're in the mood for a stand alone mystery novel set in a fantasy setting that this would be a good one to pick up!
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