Katherine Harbour's Blog - Posts Tagged "circus"

The Gracekeepers
I love it when a book I plucked from the ARC pile turns into one of my favorite books ever.
From the first scene to the last, with a lyrical foreshadowing, this fairy tale takes place in a future where the earth seems to be mostly water broken up by a few precious islands.
North is a dampling with a traveling circus of some of the most interesting circus characters I've ever read. She performs with a bear she's known since childhood. The bear is the only thing she loves--aside from the baby growing within her under mysterious circumstances. The bear is also the child of the bear that killed her parents.
Callanish is a landlocker who is a gracekeeper, one who buries the dead at sea. It's a self-imposed exile because she was born with webbed hands and feet. Hers is a solitary existence, interrupted when the circus arrives on her island.
A lovely fairy tale with an exquisite atmosphere and unique characters.