Title: The Grand Tour (A Jackson’s Unreal Circus & Marmalade Collection)
Author: E. Catherine Tobler
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Tour-Jacksons-Marmalade-Collection-ebook/dp/B086VNW374/
Summary
Step right up! Come one, come all, to Jackson’s Unreal Circus and Mobile Marmalade. The steam train may look older than your great-grandmother’s’ china, but within her metal corridors are destinations you have only ever dreamed. They’re real, friends, each and every one—and yours for the taking.
Witness Rabi, Vanquisher and Vanisher Extraordinaire, who can make coins and the past vanish before your very eyes. Dare to visit the Beauty and the Beast, our conjoined twins who are terrible and tortured by turns. Sample Beth’s marmalade, the sticky sweetness containing the very memory of the day you turned sixteen, and your beloved’s lips touched yours once and never again.It’s worth the price, traveler. Jackson’s Unreal Circus is where you can be whoever or whatever you want. Whether it be a ride on the Ferris wheel, slipping inside a skin that is not your own, or the opportunity to live as you never have before—it is all possible on this, the grandest of tours. The train beckons you—come, come!
For the first time, E. Catherine Tobler has compiled a collection of her popular circus stories. With nine stories ranging from the first publishing within this universe to a previously unpublished piece, this is your ticket to her magical world. Welcome to The Grand Tour.
Contains the following destinations:
“Vanishing Act”
“Artificial Nocturne”
“We, As One, Trailing Embers”
“Liminal”
“Blow the Moon Out”
“Ebb Stung by the Flow”
“Lady Marmalade”
“Every Season” (original to this collection)
“Inland Territory; Stray Italian Greyhound”
Featuring a special introduction by A.C. Wise!
My Review
5/5 Stars
From the very first page, I was hooked. I’m always a sucker for circus stories. This book contained nine short stories filled with mystery and intrigue. A few times I thought of American Horror Story: Freak Show. It had the same kind of vibes in places with ringmasters, bearded ladies, and a whole host of strangeness.
Each story had it’s own strengths, but a common theme in all of them was the importance of relationships—both family and otherwise. The characters all grew on me, and I was sad to come to the end of this book. The author writes in almost a dreamy style, kind of poetic. The dark tinges to each story made them all the more enthralling.
As the train of Jackson’s Unreal Circus moves along the tracks, we come across just about everything you could hope to find in a story: love, loss, friendship, comfort, drama, and sorrow.
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
