I was torn on the rating for this one, between a 3 and 4. It was darker and sadder than expected, but I like the story and the writing. It reminded me, in a way, of the Night Circus, though much darker even with its whimsical feeling.
Our main character, Mouse, is telling her life story, writing it down to share with a reporter. Through the story, I struggled to place her current age though I assume 30s or 40s, not too old but with a life that has seen a lot.
I enjoyed the story, and the stories within the story were a nice touch.
This was very much a character-driven story with a little mystery thrown in. I did like how it ended, with hope but not happiness.
Be warned there are a lot of content warnings for sexual assault, death, child abuse and neglect, suicide, and genocide.
All in all I am still torn on this book but have to say it was a good book

This was a strange book, I found it hard to get into, maybe because the main character was so without form or substance. The story itself was interesting
but something was just lacking, no magic.

I had a very hard time getting into this book and, ultimately, did not finish it. The prose was very well done but the characters didn't engage me. Additionally, the formatting on the ARC was very weird on my kindle making it almost impossible to read with the sentences all over the place. I'm sure that it was a lovely book if you could get into it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I love to read books about circuses and the peoples that inhabit them but this was not a book that I could get into. The descriptions were lengthy and I almost didn't read the book because of this. If you like "beautiful prose and poetic imagery" then this book may be for you.

I really wanted to love this book since I love circus stories. However, I couldn't even get through more than one third of the book. I think the writing style was just not for me, and I felt very jostled around with the way the story was being told. Also, I thought it was very odd that there were lots of statements about how a woman's voice is powerful and men will do anything to silence it when the narrator thought so poorly of the circus dancers just because their outfits were revealing/they dressed like "tarts." She even went as far as calling them idiots. I tried giving this book a chance but ultimately I just don't have any desire to read past the 33% mark.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus for the opportunity to read A Girl Made of Air early in exchange for an honest review.

The protagonist - who only seems to go by ‘Mouse’ - tells her life story to a journalist through a series of written flashbacks. The story takes the reader from a run-down circus touring post-WWII Britain to Coney Island, NY with reminiscences and stories from other characters also thrown in. Her purpose is both to tell her life story but also that of her friend, Serendipity Wilson, and the search for Serendipity’s lost daughter.

Honestly, this was not a book I enjoyed. While some of the storylines were interesting, there was far too much going on and the narrative style just plain irritated me. I didn’t find the protagonist to be sympathetic or likable at all. I enjoyed Serendipity’s stories and Aunt Betty in general, but just couldn’t get into this one. As always, this is simply my opinion and I know others will love this book - every reader has their book and every book their reader.

A Girl Made of Air is an engaging story about a funambulist and her life in the circus. The characters are very well described and you will be drawn in as the story tells of each ones part in the over all story. So much happens in this book that you could just escape in their realm until the last page.. The main character tells of her life and choices that change her life and how she has to come to terms with the choices she makes within the circus life.
I don’t want to give away too much but you won’t forget this book. I loved it!

In A Girl Made of Air, our unnamed narrator recounts her life as a funambulist. Her story is told primarily through flashbacks and fables. Her life is sad from the start being unwanted by her parents and ignored by the circus troop they work in. That is until the funambulist Serendipity takes our narrator in and raises her. We learn early on we learn that our narrator as an adult is still looking for a child that was lost at the circus and slowly it is revealed how this one moment in her youth haunts her into adulthood.
I really enjoyed this quiet book. Despite mainly taking place at a circus the mood is always sorrowful. You see how the height of popularity circus performances has dwindled and how everyone is struggling to maintain relevance. Nydia Hetherington weaves together the story focusing on the characters the main character comes into contact with. I love circus centered stories and this was an interesting addition to the genre.

I thought that the writing was very well done and I really wanted to love this book. I had a hard time with the beginning part of the book because I just was not engaged with the main character. But then the book picked up towards the middle/end of the book I really started to enjoy it. Thank you Netgalley and Quercus for the ARC but all opinions are my own.

I really wished the chapters and dialogue was better written because at times I lost track. Maybe the final copy will be better. I expected a little more but it was still a decent read.

Whomever mentioned that this book is for fans of Erin Morgensten or likened this book to The Night Circus actually did this book a disservice! A Girl Made of Air is nothing like Night Circus and thankfully so!! This is a slow-paced, dark, gritty and heartrending book but it works and is beautiful and will stay with you well after you’ve turned the last page. Ultimately it’s a book about love, yearning to be loved, the deep desire to be part of a family and the crippling regret caused by things one is capable of doing for such things.

The author writes this story as a set of interviews and blends the story with Gothic fable, myth and folklore. The shifts in time and narrative voice from present day to past are very well done and the reader is never confused who is saying what and when. It’s hard to understand how this is a debut novel. Loved it!

Thank you to Netgalley and Quercus for this e-arc.
Pub date: June 8, 2021

DNF. The narrative jumped between times and internal monologue too frequently, making it confusing to read and difficult to get into. There wasn't really anything that hooked me and made me want to keep reading.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

DNF 30%

I requested this book because I was drawn in by the description and because The Night Circus is one of my favorite books. I wanted to be immersed in the story and the characters in the same way. But I was left disappointed.

This book bored me. I was not drawn into the story, but instead I was counting the pages until the next chapter. Everything dragged. Additionally, I am a very character driven reader and sometimes good characters can save a not so great story, but I was having difficulties connecting with Mouse. Perhaps it was the way the story was written, using interviews as a tool to learn about the character, but it felt really detached.

I feel like some people will enjoy this book and get caught up in this world, but I was not one of them.

A well-written story about an unwanted girl born into the circus culture. To label it as a fantasy novel or to compare it to Morgenstern and Angela Carter seems misleading and unfair - Not because the book isn't good, but because it is not for the same audience.

First of all, I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In the beginning of this book, I was really unsure if I would like it. The format of the story is an older woman being interviewed about her life story. Typically, this is not a format I particularly enjoy. However, around 40% through, I really began getting invested in the story and where it was going. I'm honestly surprised at how much I liked this book. It's not very character driven, which is one of my first qualifications of a good book.

This book follows Mouse, a young girl born in a circus family. She is an outcast and a loner who later becomes a funambulist. She recounts her life story, detailing the history of her parents, as well as the woman who came to raise her. I won't go into to much detail about the plot so as not to spoil anything.

The plot of this story was captivating. I went into it thinking this was a YA book about a cute circus. Boy was I wrong. It is a very dark book, with a character laden with a dark past. The characters felt a little distant from the reader, which I think is due to the narrator, as well as the interview format of the book. However, that didn't make the plot any less poignant.

One of my biggest gripes with this book is the rampant fatphobia throughout. The narrator constantly brings up weight in regards to other characters, making it known how gross she thinks fat people are. It ended up being distracting and gross.

I would recommend this book to someone looking for a dark circus story about a woman trying to navigate life when she wasn't given much to begin with.


TW: alcohol, alcoholism, assault, blood, child abuse, child neglect, emotional abuse, fatphobia, hallucinations, misogyny, needles, physical abuse, pregnancy, prostitution, rape (on the page), sexim, sexual assault, sexually explicit scenes, starvation, suicide (on the page), war

Mouse is an unwanted girl who lives with her parents in a circus in England. Her mother is the star of the show, a “mermaid” who swims with crocodiles and Mouse is eventually trained by the circus’ resident funambulist or high wire walker.

A Girl Made of Air takes us through Mouse’s childhood into adulthood through a combination of first person memories as well as a handful of folkloric tales told by her pseudo mother figure, Serendipity Wilson.

Although well written, I would not categorize this book at all as sci fi fantasy. It is historical fiction with a bit of folklore/mythos thrown in. Heartbreaking and full of loss and the magical aspects seemed to fall a bit flat.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this digital advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

To put it simply, I had a really hard time with this book. The main character was hard to connect to and while I really wanted to fall in love with this, I just couldn't. I know many others loved it, but it just isn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Publishing for providing me with an ARC, in exchange for my honest review.

Nydia Hetherington's book, A Girl Made of Air, tells the story of a young girl, Mouse, (we never learn her real name) born to members of a travelling circus troupe in the UK after WWI, and her eventual immigration to the US where she dazzles Coney Island as The Greatest Funambulist Who Ever Lived. The story is told through flashbacks by Mouse, in interviews with a journalist, newspaper clippings, saved letters and Mouse's journals. Tossed into the mix are stories of fairies and sea creatures, told to her by her friend (and surrogate parent and friend) Serendipity Wilson, who introduces a young Mouse to the high wire. Mouse's mother, Marina, was once the shining star of the circus, a gorgeous siren who swam in a tank with crocodiles, but who has now deteriorated into alcoholism. The circus troupe is filled with odd and quirky characters, none of whom show any interest in Mouse until Seredipity Wilson with her brilliant flame-like hair and high-wire skills arrives.

Mouse has been neglected and abandoned by her parents, and lives her life in the half-shadows of the circus wagons. She keeps to herself, other than spending time with the animals Manu (her father) trains, keeps her head down and generally tries to remain invisible. Serendipity Wilson coaxes her out of her shell, trains her on the high-wire, and moves her into her tent. She tells Mouse stories of her youth, of fairies and pixies, and tries to help Mouse find her self-worth. As Mouse becomes the star of the show, dancing fearlessly along the high wire, ugly truths about her mother and father come to light. Serendipity becomes pregnant and withdraws into herself, and Mouse is left to care for the new baby while she continues to practice her high-wire act. Events conspire to rip Mouse from the world she has finally started to build for herself, and all the things she thought she could count on are pulled from her.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit - I was intrigued by the title and having read the author's bio and found out she had been a circus performer herself, thought this would be an interesting one to try. I liked the creative way the story line unfolded through the use of different stories and journal entries, letters, and an interview. Set in post WWII Britain, the author does a good job creating that world that is trying to rebuild, and many different ways the war affected people involved with it, both in the UK and mainland Europe. I would have liked perhaps a little more time spent on Mouse's life in New York/Coney Island, but that may be a personal bias as I have a fond spot for Coney Island even when, as in this timeline, she's a bit past her glory years. Mouse is a multifaceted character. She is someone you want to cheer for, even when you find it difficult to do so as she uses people and pushes away those who love her and are trying to help her. I didn't find the story had much magical realism in it. There are some references to magic and the fairies in the stories Serendipity Wilson tells but the hints of magic in other parts of the story are explained away by the end (which underscores them more as childhood imaginings from a girl who spends a lot of time without friends and inside her own head.)

Well-written and engaging, I would recommend this book and will look for others in the future from this author as well.

This book is really hard to rate. It started out as a 4 star book and just kept falling the longer I read. By the end it was 2 to 3 stars and I ultimately ended up at 2 because I was so glad it was over. I actually enjoyed the story but I really disliked the way it was told.

To begin with, the writing was beautiful as promised. It really set the feel of the book and initially really drew me into the story. However, it quickly lost me.

I did not like the characters. First of all, their names were ridiculous and I couldn't accept Mouse, Bunny, and Serendipity Wilson as legitimate names. It did hint that these were made up at one point but no real names were given and these were just so horrible that I couldn't deal. Then forget about the bad names, the characters themselves were bad and switched personalities frequently. Mouse is a pretty likable character in the beginning but then becomes so self-obsessed that I wanted to slap her. Add to that that I had no idea how old she was most of the time and it resulted in me really disliking her. Serendipity Wilson (and yes, apparently the last name is important) also turned on Mouse totally randomly and again, went really out of character to be almost unrecognizable from the originally likeable character.

The narration style was also just weird and took away from the story. The interview format was originally compelling but quickly turned into a passive voice writing letters that made the story feel less urgent. I didn't care about the modern day story and thought the whole thing would have been more compelling told in normal 1st person in real-time. This choice might have been justified with a good conclusion but again, I was disappointed.

Another issue I had with this story was the time period. From the very few dates actually mentioned, the book was set a lot later in history than the way it read. Traveling circus doesn't seem to fit in the 1960s. I'm still confused about the timing and the characters' age and when the interview/writing happened afterwards, it was not explained well at all. A lot of the story, especially in the beginning, also read like a stream of consciousness narrative which was confusing and led to my further confusion on the timing.

This book was also marketed as fantasy and I found that really misleading. There were some fantasy elements but they felt out of place and largely seemed like things that Mouse could have made up in her memory (glowing hair, bubbles....I really think that's the extent of it). That stuff was totally unnecessary and out of place. This is a historical fiction book and if like me, you're looking for some fantasy, you're going to be disappointed.

All that said, there were was portions that I really liked. I thought the beginning of Mouse's story held promise. I really liked the background of Marina and reveal of that. Plus a few other chapters/sections that were just interesting. But they were few and far between.

Lastly, this is another author who chooses not to use quotation marks. I will never accept or like this. I find it extremely distracting and hard to read. I will always round down readings for this issue, it just brings my enjoyment level of any book down. This book even went so far as to use italics instead and as someone who uses the dyslexic friendly Kindle font, I can tell you that italics don't look that much different than regular font. This is not a substitute for quotation marks. Please stop this terrible form of writing that is annoying to so many readers!! This author could also really scale back the use of the word "tarpaulin" because it was entirely overused in this book to the point it was almost comical.

If you are solely going into this book for a circus-based historical fiction, you may find it enjoyable but if you are looking for the promised fantasy or an excellent story, try something else.

** I was given a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

This review was posted to Goodreads on 5/13/2021: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3992204500?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love this cover and was enchanted by the idea of a book that would harken to Morgenstern's Night Circus. To me, A Girl Made of Air is less magic and more mystery. The storytelling style is mesmerizing. Gritty and ethereal. To embark on such a difficult story as a debut novel is amazing.

The story opens with the "Greatest Funambulist" getting interviewed. I haven't read a story with this structure for a while and thought it worked well for Mouse to go over her past and try to make peace with her demons. And she certainly has demons with parents who neglected her to the point of not even talking to her most of the time.

It took me longer to read this book than most books. I think this was because of the language. I slowed down to taste the words. Books can bespell me with their language, and Hetherington is one of those authors with this gift. The stories within the story told by Serendipity are delightful with morals and lessons for Mouse if she will only listen.

As an alert, there was more sexual content and description than I usually read. The magical veneer of the circus is removed, leaving us with a tale of sadness and loneliness.

Mouse really didn't have much of a life or people who cared for her. Yes, she had Serendipity Wilson for a season, but she is alone and seeking human interaction. The story made me think about how we all want validation that our story matters, that we are worthwhile, and needed. Mouse remains a little bit distant and untouchable for as much as she longs to be loved.

In the end, I would say Mouse's story is thought-provoking. And I recommend it for people ready to dive deeply into a world unlike what they know.