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I'm not sure where to start, if I'm being honest. This book has been on my to-read list for a long time because the Gothic nature of a circus that only opens at night was intriguing and seemed to be up my ally. I just subscribed to a new box, OwlCrate, and one of hints indicated that there would be an item in the box that related to this book. I figured I should read it before I get my box, so I would at least understand where the item was coming from.

This book was dangerously close to being on my abandoned list, which is an extremely small selection of books that I cannot bring myself to finish. I'm not a fan of how this book is written. It's not that it's written in third person, but it's the third person mixed with excessive narration. Not much is shown to you, but rather told to you. You're told the characteristics a certain character has instead of experiencing those characteristics for yourself, for example.

The pacing was weird. At first, I found the arrangement of chapters and the pacing interesting. I wanted to keep reading from a writer's perspective; I wanted to see how she pulled that off and where it was going. Why was that necessary to the plot?

And then it got old and annoying. The book is set up in a weird way, as mentioned. So, you have five parts. Within those parts are second person bits, where you are walking through the circus on one night. I absolutely loved those. The way those scenes were sprinkled inside the book was genius. Then, you have these scenes that jump from years into the future to years into the past. These scenes are also focused on different characters in those different time periods. It got really confusing until I understood who all of the characters are and what their roles were in the circus itself.

The biggest problem I have with jumps is that it pulled me out of the story. Typically, I get so enveloped in a story that I forget my own reality and I become a part of the story in front of me. So, when I was constantly being pulled out of that zone, I became frustrated. When I was about half way through the book, I was ready to put the book down and find something else to read. However, something told me to keep reading. I listened to my gut and I'm sort of glad that I did.

The first half of the story is incredibly dry. It's boring, aside from the second person bits where you would be able to explore the circus as a patron. The second half picks up, though. The plot thickens, the romance starts, and the twists become more unpredictable.

This book is classified as a fantasy romance, but it's not. The romance is spotty and you can tell it's passionate for the characters, but we didn't get to feel that as readers because of the writing style (where it's tell and now show). I felt very separated from the story because of the way it was written.

Now, don't get me wrong. The story line is brilliant. The plot and the idea of this story is mind-blowing, but I just couldn't get into it because of how it was written.