A heartwarming story that is reminiscent of Water for Elephants and the Night Circus. The main character Lena Papadopoulos is particularly well drawn and robust. The reader is introduced to the World of Wonders, a traveling train circus show that travels throughout Europe, bedecked with opulence and mysterious and bewitching shows. Crowds were never a problem because of the ingenuity and lavishness of the acts. Lena had polio as a child and had been in a wheelchair since. She had always felt like an outsider as she was unable to participate in active games with circus children and was left alone. Her overprotective father, Theo, was a master illusionist, who plied her with the best education and a companion teacher to occupy her during the days. As Lena helped the circus's doctor she became enthralled with medicine and soon knew anatomy intimately. When she discovered a young Jewish runaway boy(Alexandre) passed out on the kitchen floor she tried to rescue him and secure help for him. As he got better, Theo saw some traits in the teenager that led him to believe he would be great as an illusionist as well. He convinced the owner of the train to get forged papers for his safety and took him under his wing. Lena and Alexandre became fast friends and his belief in her led to her own self confidence and attempts to get out of the wheelchair. This encouragement was to bolster her during her entire life. WWII upset the apple cart and fears of safety affected Lena and her Dad, while the circus owner betrayed them as well and Lena was separated from her Dad and Alexandre as they were sent to Theresienstadt, a supposedly model "settlement" camp that was anything but. I won't share anything further as it would spoil the plot. The book delves into the power of lies, betrayals, and foremost familial and community love. Being very acquainted with the history of Theresiestadt it was not as eye opening as it might be for other individuals. An easy read, though filled with the horrors of WWII, it will be appreciated by those who want an entertaining tale.

This was one of those can't-put-down novels. The plot is so unique---a traveling circus with WWII as the background. The characters as well were unique: an illusionist, a young Jewish refugee, and curious and scientific-minded polio victim who yearns for more.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. I was blown away at how engrossed in this book I was. I may have finished the last 20% today while I was at work and supposed to be working but secretly had my phone with the kindle app up propped on my computer because I needed to finish.
The main character Lena is someone you root for from the very beginning. She is so lovable that you do not want anything but good things to happen to her. And she is a strong woman who knows what she wants and will work harder than anyone else to get it. She has both a blood and a found family to support her through different times, and most characters were lovable. Even the ones who did less-than-ideal things, you could always see their perspective and how they felt they were doing right, which made it feel super realistic.
One thing I loved about this book is that most books seem to put “strong woman with goals and objectives” in a box that means they won’t also be able to have an epic love story, and this book lets you know that you can have both. Lena can compromise but not sacrifice her goals for love, and I think thats an incredibly important distinction and one illustrated beautifully in this novel.
There are twists I didn’t see coming, incredible world building both in the circus and in the cities in general while taking place in Europe during the start of WWII, and the story of a fiery girl who defies all odds. Cannot recommend enough.

I enjoyed this book. It's a little less about a circus than I expected but that was ok. Lena is a twelve-year-old Greek girl who was crippled by polio as an infant. She is being raised by a single father who is an illusionist in a traveling circus during World War II. A young Jewish orphan joins the circus group as her father's apprentice. Everyone has secrets. Betrayals happen and through all of it, life continues.

I would love to see this one as a movie. I think it could be really fantastic.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advance copy!

This was a difficult book from start to finish.
It covers too many topics and is, to be candid, poorly written.
I feel it was well researched, and the cover is beautiful. But this is not the book I expected and the character development was lackluster at best.
I do wholeheartedly appreciate the advanced copy, but I cannot recommend this book.

The Circus Train encapsulates so many aspects of history in one mesmerizing tale. We get a little history about WWII and a different type of camp for Jews, we learn a little about polio and how a disabled child is treated, a little about circus performers being treated almost like slaves and there’s even some aspects of feminism. Honestly, this book is captivating.

Lena is born with polio and lives with her father who is a circus performer. She has no friends so she spends most of her time reading and learning. She has an insatiable appetite for knowledge, which later gains her entrance into some of the best schools. Her best friend, Alexandre, doesn’t see her as disabled and their friendship flourishes into love. She is her father’s greatest joy and he gives her a fulfilling life, until things take a turn. The war has begun and life becomes unhinged for everybody.

This book is a beautiful telling of love, broken hearts, perseverance and undying friendship. The main characters come to life early on in the story and it’s hard not to fall in love with each of them. I give this book 4 stars and look forward to buying the hard copy so I can share with my friends and family. Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC.

This book missed the mark for me. It has all of the things I would usually love in a book but it was delivered in such a way I couldn’t take hold.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher.

Absolutely fantastic read! I read this in one sitting it was that good. I can not wait for more by this author!

Lena Papadopoulos lives on a circus train, and not just any old circus, but the World of Wonders - the greatest, most wondrous circus in the world. Not only that, but she is the daughter of Theo Papadopoulos, the greatest illusionist in the world who can produce firebirds made of actual fire, and cause water to freeze and melt on command. What more could a young pre-teen girl want in such a magical world? Yet, Lena's heart is set on a different kind of magic. Stuck in a wheelchair from an episode of polio, Lena longs to master her body and learn to walk, and then to pursue a career as a physician. When she finds Alexandre, a young, jewish orphan with a past full of secrets and an eye for the things others miss, the wheels are set in motion to change Lena's life. Will she finally find the future she dreams of? At what cost?

Set in the backdrop of Europe in WWII Amita Parikh's "The Circus Train" attempts to explore multiple topics - the wonder of a travelling circus, the life of a disabled young woman and the horrors of WWII Europe. Unfortunately, the book falls flat. The plot expects the reader to believe that the wondrous circus - greatest in the world - is apparently so plain that a young girl in a wheelchair is the oddest thing around. The disability representation (which is promoted to be one of the biggest selling points for the book and discussed extensively in an author's note) is essentially ignored. Far from rising to reach her ambitions despite having to navigate an ableist world with disability, our protagonist manages to very quickly leave the disability itself behind - seemingly through a combination of "wishing and believing really hard" and being surrounded by supportive people who say such helpful things as "maybe she can walk! She's never tried!". And lo and behold, once our protagonist tries she finds she can, and our disabled young girl in a wheelchair is soon able to walk without any support. (The author does suggest that she struggles with dancing and running, but we later see her do both these things in the book - seemingly without pain or trouble). The overall effect leaves behind a bitter taste - is the author supposing that those who are disabled are only so because they, and those around them, didn't care enough to try?

Just as troubling is the author's portrayal of WWII. [SPOILER ALERT]

Nazi occupation takes center stage as we find two of our main characters, Alexandre and Theo, held in a camp. Yet, the true horror of those camps is never truly explored (Alexandre at one point hypothesizes that those who leave the camp are killed - a hypothesis the reader, with their off-book knowledge of history acknowledges as truth - however, the book goes on to show that Alexandre is unreliable, with his overly paranoid, criminally self-preserving father being the voice in his head that supplies him these thoughts). The lack of horror can be excused however, as an artifact of it being a YA book. What is unforgivable is the book's choice of villains. Through the story, three villains are introduced:
- Horace, who goes out of his way to report to SS officers that Alexandre is a Jew and Theo the criminal who tried to protect him. Resulting in these two men being dragged away to a camp.
- The SS Officer who tears up Alexandre and Theo's contract, leaving them with no legal recourse to leave the camp.
- Attila, the Jewish prisoner who is being held at a camp strife with hunger, sickness and horrific living conditions (with no way to leave until death) who reports Alexandre and Theo's attempt to escape (likely with hope of reward).

Parikh, through her story then goes on to explain and redeem the first two - Horace is key to Lena reuniting with Alexandre and Theo, and the SS Officer is only holding Alexandre and Theo past their contract because he needs them to perform for the King of Denmark. The "villain" left unredeemed, without a sympathetic thought is Attila. As a commentary on WWII this choice is horrifying - blaming the Jews for their fate, while finding ways to excuse both the Nazis and their sympathizers. Now I hardly believe these choices were made for the sake of the messages they bring across. Yet, the sheer insensitivity and lack of care put into building this story leaves the reader feeling gross.

These fatal flaws are accompanied by one-dimensional characters who contradict themselves and defy reality to allow Parikh to tie up her plot in a neat little (predictable) bow, random unrelated ramblings (including a one chapter aside on post-colonial India that reads like a cookie cutter caricature to provide POC rep - relating not at all to the rest of the story) and a clear tell-don't-show attitude.

Overall, the book reads as a poorly thought out pile of callouts to what someone believes readers want to see - lip service to disability rep, the horrors of Nazism, POC rep, Anti-Colonial rep, Feminist rep - while mangling it to all.
I cannot recommend this book, though I thank Net Galley and the publishers for allowing me to read an ARC.

This was a fantastic book and I read it all in one sitting. The story goes inside the World of Wonders, a traveling circus through Europe in the years leading up to and during World War II. The main character is Helena (Lena) Papadopoulous. She is dealing with the aftereffects of contracting polio as an infant and struggles with her physical limitations and crushing loneliness. She finds friendship, encouragement and love in Alexandre, a Jewish orphan a few years her senior, who she finds after he boards the train on the run from his past. Alexandre, Alexandre is taken under on as an apprentice under Lena's father, Theo. I found the characters to be extremely complex, which kept me engaged in the story. It's clear the author, Amita Parikh, has a wonderful imagination and very clearly did a lot of background research to prepare for writing the novel and filling it with such rich details.

The Circus Train is Amita Parikh's historical fiction debut. Kudos to the author for writing a heartwarming story with characters that resonate and touch readers emotionally. Complete with a striking book cover, the novel is a wonderful way to end the year.

The story alternates between Theo, Lena, and Alexandre who travel with a circus and deal with the brutal conditions during World War II. It is an engrossing and in-depth look at their unique lives and the love they share as a make-shift family. Parikh's delivers a poignant look at the trials and triumphs of living with disability and hardship.

The Circus Train is available on December 6th.

Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam, (G. P. Putnam's Sons), for sharing this book with me. Your kindness is appreciated. I look forward to reading more from Amita Parikh.

#TheCircusTrain

I absolutely loved the conceit for this book and I appreciated all the research that went into it. There were times I was completely lost in the storytelling and characters. There were also some times where I wanted a bit... more, like the story was underdeveloped in spots. Or like a thread was dropped. Of course, this is an ARC so the finished version may have that "more" I was looking for. Overall, an enjoyable story and concept that I'll happily recommend for those wanting an entertaining circus=inspired story.

This was a beautiful, moving novel about a girl who lives in the circus during WWII. The editor describes it as:

Water for Elephants meets The Night Circus in this World War II debut about a magnificent travelling circus, a star-crossed romance, and one girl’s coming-of-age during the darkest of times.

It was a well written, book with a beautiful story. However, it was a little too slow for my personal taste. It reminds me of Under the Tuscan Sun. The story is NOT the same at ALL. But that was another book that people loved and it was really beautiful, but... well... I was bored.

I am not sure how to rate this. For the average reader, it will probably be a 4-5 star read.. But for those of us that need a little "something extra" in our story ... sigh.. I am going to have to go with 3 stars.

I wanted to love this so much. It has so many individual elements that are totally my jam; a circus, historical fiction, a diverse cast of characters, a strong female lead, a love story, etc. The premise is incredibly intriguing and is what immediately drew me to the book... sadly, the execution didn't quite land for me. It was fine, but I wanted so much more from it.

One thing I found myself repeatedly thinking throughout the story was "show me don't tell me." A lot happens in this book and it spans over 20 years. But the result is that a lot of story is glossed over very quickly and any discord is resolved almost immediately. There were a lot of moments I wished the author dug in a little more instead of breezing through content.

Another thing that had me curious is the intended audience. It's tagged as Historical Fiction and Women's Fiction in NetGalley (and a few more genres in Goodreads), but I would suggest it's also YA or even Teen. About half the book takes place during Lena's 11th - 13th year, so most of the story is spent through the eyes of a child and it's difficult to think of this as a book meant for adults (despite some of the wartime content which is pretty PG).

Overall, it was a nice coming of age story that was sweet, if not a little predictable. There were characters and moments I would have liked to have seen more of and some elements I thought were unnecessary, but in general it was a fun read. Lena is a heroine that you can't help but love and want to root for.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for an ARC of this book.

Utterly entrancing concept but delivered in such a way that I just wasn’t able to get into the flow of this story - it felt like it was missing too much, after approaching a lot of topics.

I will certainly pick up the author’s future works, but this one was for me, a miss. Take my opinion with a grain of sand, however, as most readers seemed to love this.

“The Circus Train” is a debut historical fiction novel by Amita Parikh. I’ll admit to not being a huge fan of circus themed books, but for this book, the characters are the main point, not the circus itself. What I really liked about this book was how Ms. Parikh delved into the character of Lena - from her grit and determination to being incredibly book smart to wanting simple things - including friends and a, seemingly, normal life. I greatly enjoyed the character of the doctor - who agreed to help Lena, as best he could, with overcoming her physical disability (and I also liked how Ms. Parikh gave a host out to Sister Kenny’s work in the Author’s Note). I also liked the descriptions of the magic that Theo performed - I’m always one for illusion and wonder. A nod of thanks to Ms. Parikh for including more information about Theresienstadt. Although I’ve read about this “faux spa town” before, learning more about it is always welcome. What I wasn’t too thrilled with in this book was that at times the story had odd pacing; at times it moved along slowly, especially at the beginning, and then it alternated between slow and quick paced scenes. Because a chunk of the beginning of the book is devoted to Lena overcoming her disability, I thought that was going to be part of the book’s focus past the 50% mark … and it really wasn’t. For building up such a big thing, it almost seemed to become an afterthought in the later parts of the book. My one huge quibble is that I never could really understand how the train was laid out - there’s a separate car they could use for Lena? Where was the maze exactly and how large was it? How many people were in the circus and how many cars? Also, not too thrilled that this really turned into more of a romance story opposed to a historical fiction book, but that’s just me. For a debut novel, I think the idea was a great one and I greatly enjoyed the work that Ms. Parikh put into it (do read the Author’s Note - it provides some additional historical references).

When a new young crew member joins the circus, Lena, the quiet, studious daughter of the illusionist is drawn out of her lonely existence. Readers will enjoy the complicated histories that form the relationships in this story. The Circus Train is a story of family bonds, friendship, secrets, and love, but even more than that, it is a story of Lena's strength, and perseverance. Readers who enjoy historical fiction with strong characters working to overcome tragedy will enjoy this book.

I wish to thank NetGalley and Penguin Group - Putnam Publishers for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a first time novel for an amazingly talented author. This story is not your typical WWII book. It begins in 1938 in Europe. Lena is a young girl crippled with polio who travels across Europe with a circus in which her famous illusionist father performs as the headline act. She has no friends, and is very lonely. She meets a young Jewish stowaway, Alexandre, and they become friends. The story proceeds until WWII when life changes for all of them. The story is told with a great amount of sensitivity and all of the characters are beautifully crafted. I recommend this book to young adults and mature readers. There is so much to learn here about dealing with polio, social issues, circus life and maturing in an age of conflict. The surprises will amaze you and you will never want the story to end. I can hardly wait for this author’s next book. I especially enjoyed the endnotes explaining how she developed the story and what is true and what is fiction.

If you loved the book, “Water for Elephants”, you are sure to love this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher. I received an ARC edition of this book for an honest review.

Lena's mother passed away with Typhoid when she was born and Lena also caught polio so she wasn't able to walk at a young age. Her father joined a traveling circus as an illusionist and she came along with them, and kept up with her studies but couldn't help with the circus because of her disability. She felt like she didn't fit in anywhere or have any friends until she finds a stowaway boy Alexandre, who was a Jew, in one of the carriages. They became fast friends but WWII has broken out and it becomes very dangerous to hide her new friend. Her father, unbeknownst to her, makes secret plans to have them escape to America but before they could do so, tragedy strikes and Lena is set on a path by herself.

I devoured this book. It was a different take on a WWII book. To me it was similar to the Night Circus but set in WWII era. The characters were all very believable and it all felt very magical. The relationship growth between Lena and her friend Alexandre over time was my favorite part. I also enjoyed that there was an author's note at the end where the author explained what was real and what the author took creative liberties on. I highly recommend this book.

What a delightful read! The Circus Train is about a girl who is wheelchair bound due to Polio in her early childhood who meets a stowaway boy running from the SS and his past and their worlds collide in this book as they find and develop a friendship like nothing else. I love the sweet innocence of the story line set in the beginning stages of World War Two as each grow up in turbulent times but trying to make the most of the world they live in. Reminds me a lot of The Water Elephant. Delightful and sweet!

*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*