Rainy Day Reads

This book made its rounds on Booktube quite a while ago and everyone was really excited for it when it first showed up. But as people read it, I seem to recall some pretty mixed reviews. People kept comparing it to “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern when it first came out, and since I didn’t really like that book, I decided this wasn’t for me. But I happened to come across it at my library, and since people had been saying that it wasn’t all that reminiscent of “The Night Circus” after all I decided to give it a go.   This story follows Scarlett who lives with her sister and father on a small island. She is about to be married off to a count, whom she has never met, but she is happy about these prospects because it will allow her to escape her abusive father. Her sister, Donatella, however, has other plans. She snags invites to a game, Caraval, that is played every year, hosted by Legend, who appears to be a magician of some sort. When the sisters reach the place where t...

I picked this one up randomly at my library because I liked the cover and the promise of a carnival setting.   It details the story of Julia Pastrana, a young woman in the 19th century freak show scene. Julia was born in Mexico an abandoned by her mother due to her excessive hair growth. She was taken in by the local governor, but when propositioned by a showman to be his main attraction she leaves Mexico and starts a touring life that continued until her death.  The book is based on the true story of Julia Pastrana, a so-called “bearded woman”. In reality she was probably suffering from what we now know as hypertrichosis, a condition that left her entire body and face covered with hair.  In the book we follow her as she tours the world becoming a major attraction wherever she goes. But in reality she longs for a quiet family life and hopes to achieve this one day. The dream seems about to come true when her manager decides to propose marriage to her ...