I picked up this book solely for the inclusion of a circus with supernatural undertones, because that's really my brand at this point, and honestly I think I need to start being more selective when it comes to picking out books from small plot threads alone. There were things to enjoy about the story, I especially liked its noirish undertones, which gave me real big Nightmare Alley vibes but if there was a slight hint of the paranormal to it. Some of the characters had interesting backgrounds and the potential to have really interesting development or introspection like Ruby and Daniel. It just seemed like every chapter had this blanket of blah over it.

There were moments of excitement, but they were constantly bookended by scenes that were incredibly dull or could have been used to peek slightly deeper into our characters. Hayden, as a character, seems the most superfluous, as he's just really the normal guy to offset Daniel's inhumanity when it comes to potential love interests. He's set up to be completely mundane in comparison to all the more intriguing folk of the circus and he stays that way throughout the entire book. He's not a detestable guy by any means, he just exudes all the appeal of white bread.

I also had a difficult time trying to figure out where exactly this story was going, because at some points it felt very meandering. Going through the climax was an incredible sort of whiplash from how quickly things were trying to get resolved and, even then, I'm still not entirely sure what happened.

Like, I understand Ruby was trying to give Daniel what he wanted in showing him what mortality feels like, and then thinking she bested him when she's like "Psych, I'm never going to give you that experience that again and I'm the only one who can." And then Daniel just nopes out? Goes right to Hollywood and says "Yeah, I'm probs never going to see her again, but I'm cool with that since the madness I feel from that will always include her, so she's always with me." Soo....what was the point? He mentions how this was all a game with no winner, so really all this build up and story was for no resolution? At least none that matters or has very little weight to it. I'm sure there's probably a lesson in pessimism or defeatism in here somewhere, but it's really not worth the effort to look any further.

Ultimately, it was a very empty read and I don't think I'm going to be remembering it a year from now.