Ben, the teenage son of a powerful government minister, attends on opening night and falls under the spell of Hoshiko, the tightrope walker and star attraction. But as he steps beyond the dazzle and spectacle of the area, to reveal the horrors of that lurk beneath, can he find the courage to resist, to rebel, to help end the cruelty and the carnage?
Step right up for this heartbreaking and heart-racing story - the darker the danger; the louder you'll scream...
This is a dystopia. I didn't realise that until I started reading it. I was disappointed because I wanted cool, spooky circus fun and not expecting a half-baked political message with ill-conceived world building.
The story is told from Ben, pure rich boy, and Hoshiko, a dreg who is forced to perform in the circus, which is designed to kill dregs for the entertainment of Pures.
I found the world building to be lacking. Death circus is cool idea but the rest of the world is poorly consulted to run it.
As this is a dystopia it has it share of stupid name changes like Parliament is now PowerHouse. We have had several Parliament building in history and it now being a statue-like building. This is meant to be near future, so who got away with that stupid change. I'm also surprised that non-English heritage names are allowed in this world.
There's also a bit where they turn the circus tent to look like a Pumpkin, but Pumpkins are foreigners and therefore unpure. Okay, no one, not even the racists think about squash that way. Crave a turnip. The Tradition Irish/Scottish Halloween.
Another big problem is that is very surface racism/prejudice. It never explain in detain who are considered a dreg. It's not done just by skin colour as there is a Blond pale dreg. The Author to my best knowledge is English so probably didn't consider how prejudice the English are towards the Celtic (Keltic) countries that surrounded it e.g. the rest of the UK. Sure, we have been prejudice to them. This mostly seen in government policy now. Poor Wales. What I'm wondering is, are they straight up Nazis? Like is it only Anglo Saxon for the win. The main character is Blonde and there are European Heritage dregs. Racism ain't logical in real life, but this is more a lack of world building. Though, there's going to be a sequel so maybe it explain in there.
The actual problem with this book is the romance. I don't buy it at all, it's instant Love and everyone that's a "good" guy accepts it. I feel like there's a scene missing. I buy Ben's side of things but not Hoshiko's. She risks her family for a boy she see as the enemy. Her mindset changes when the plot calls for it. Maybe if they had had a conversation before she started risking her life for some random. So much of the plot relays on it and its just not very strong. Baker tries to show Hoshiko's conflict but it comes across as so flickle. I think if this could have been done right, I would have probably let most my other issues go but I go annoyed and started motivation at lot so I notice the other issues more.
Hoshiko when not throwing away everything for a boy was a compelling character...sometimes. Ben is doing the whole discovering his life is a lie thing and getting people killed. He does act with abandon after his moment of clarity. They are okay characters. Plot more than anything actually drives this book, but it very much established as being no win scenario and I wouldn't have guess sequel was coming till I was googling around for the info on Baker's background. It probably have been stronger for me if Baker had embraced the impossible for these characters but with them starting something bigger.
Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for Freezer Brains. This book wasn't what I was expecting when I started reading it, which definitely effected my enjoyment level. It has a big subject that taken from Britain increasing uncertain political future but I don't think it comes closes to hitting that. This is probably more for a young, unpolitical knowledgable teen and does a good job of tricking an unaware reader into reading it with the novelty of a circus. I don't think I will read the sequel, Show Stealer, unless the description is more interesting.
Thanks for linking up to the British Books Challenge
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