CW/TW - sexual assault, fat phobia

3 stars - this was such a fun idea for a book. I liked Forrestina and her quirky background in the circus, carnival, and as a bar owner. I also loved all of the details added to her character, and those around her. It almost felt whimsical, but not quite. The story was interesting and sad, but didn’t deviate much from what I had expected to happen.

I wish there had been significantly less talk about body image. There were a lot of instances of describing characters in terms of their unappealing (to put it mildly) fat bodies, and metabolism, etc. considering most of it was not related to things like her career as an acrobat or anyone’s health, it felt unnecessary and mean. One of the instances was so uncomfortable it really took me out of the story.