Personally, I loved this story. I'm always a sucker for a good story that takes place in a carnival or circus. This one hit all the points that I love about stories like this. The characters were really great, I felt so much for Emma, and couldn't help but like Ben so much. When I picked this one up, I hated whenever I had to put it down. I mostly read during lunch breaks at school, so it made going back to work really hard. I got swept into the mythology behind the curse and the charm. I liked how there were people you would assume would be a problem with trying to break the curse, but they surprised you. I loved how Sidney even became someone you empathized with, and wanted to see him get his true love finally. And then there was all the horrible things those with the curse had to endure. The initial breaking to start the curse, followed by the coldness and twitching. Not being able to feel anything. Then the guilt of having to either do the same terrible thing to another innocent person in order to save yourself, or else having to be stuck with the curse yourself, not being able to go back to your own family. Also the curse was related to the rest of the carnies "charm" and how much they were able to do as part of their amazing acts.

I loved the connection to New Orleans. And the story behind the curse was so good. Solving the curse was a very heart-breaking solution, and it was easy to understand why Emma didn't want to do it the way it had to be done. A great story, a book I will definitely be purchasing for my school library!

Now, my only issues. First, the aerial family members that were the "bad guys" in the story. I almost feel like I needed a little more reason for what they did. For how evil they got at the end. I didn't quite understand what their solution was with Ben and Emma. My other thought is one I had about teens today. I wonder, do teens today really know or get what a carnival or traveling circus show is? I mean, Barnum and Baileys are going out of business, right? So what circuses are there anymore? And even as I was growing up, there weren't really the carnivals like this story is about. The reason I began thinking about this, is that another of my favorite stories, Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond, is about a circus, and I can barely get students to even look at it. I guess I just wonder if carnivals or circuses mean the same to teens today as they did when I was growing up.