The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus

"The languages between them could not have meant less just then, gone in the face of shared experience and shared pain"

I. Love. This. Book.

"The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus" moved me deeply, in a lot of different ways. I'm certain that this is a book that I'll come back to and read over and over again, because that's how much I loved it. It has so many important topics and beautiful quotes that I found it really hard to choose one quote in the beginning of this review.

Chelsea Shu dies at 27 and becomes a ghost. A ghost who mourns her own death and the fact that she can see her family and be by their side, without them noticing her. Luckily she meets Carmen that when the story begins already is her mentor in this undead world of theirs.

The story takes place two years after Chelsea's death when she finds out that her little brother Osric is about to get married to the love of his life. Together the ghostly companions Chelsea and Carmen decide to go there...and with go I literally mean go because ghosts can't travel in cars, airplanes or by train. Homeless, human mime (that both can see and communicate with ghosts) Cyndricka decides to come with her friends...and so the journey of their undead and very alive lives begins.

This book both made me cry, laugh and feel an incredible amount of feelings. All three females stories moved me and their growing friendship makes my heart so full. The characters are very different from one another and I believe that, that is what makes them so great together.

McFalls writing is fenomenal, her characters are beautifully portrayed and the amount of details, action, sadness, happiness and comedy is woven together perfectly. There's simply nothing not to like about this book.

The characters varies a lot both when it comes to sexual orientations and ethnicity which I find absolutely lovely. Like that isn't enough McFall also brings up periods (which might sound like nothing( but the fact that Cyndricka has to see to her menstrual hygiene while on the road is just great. Because how often do we actually get to read about the characters getting their period when they are on their adventures?

As a person who believes in a life after this, this book really meant something for me. I don't know if this book describes what McFall believes happens after death or if it's simply a fantasy story. But this story really made me feel a lot of feelings after losing people close to me and believing that they are still out there somewhere.

Thank you NetGalley and Atthis Arts for the e-ARC of "The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus, I absolutely adore it...and the biggest thanks to Alanna McFall for writing a new favorite book of mine, this really is something different. I loved it. ❤️

I absolutely loved this book. It was so different, but in a wonderful way. The characters are fully developed and really tug on your heartstrings. I was rooting for all of them the whole way through. I’m sure the more I think about it, the more I will adore it.

It was the title that first grabbed me, and what a grand title it is. Chelsea dies, crushed by a New York subway train in the opening chapter, and it's all a stupid accident. Two years later, when she's haunting her grave on the anniversary of her death she discovers that her brother is getting married. They postponed their wedding due to Chelsea's death are finally getting married, but the wedding is in San Francisco. Chelsea is the primary protagonist and is our first-person point of view.

Ghosts can't just get on a plane, bus or car and travel. The vehicle would leave, but they would be left floating where they started, so the only way to get to the other side of that big country is to walk, well float.

Cyndricka is alive but can see ghosts. She can hear them too, but she gave up speaking years ago when it caused more trouble than she could cope with. She has had a tough life but is sleeping out in Central Park putting on regular mime shows with an audience containing as many ghosts as humans.

Carmen is an old ghost, well compared to Chelsea anyway. She is the strongest of the three and the most worldly-wise. She has made it her task to stop Chelsea wallowing in self-pity and spends most of her time seeking distraction from the endlessness of dead time, learning languages and watching movies and tv, anything but boredom.

They all have their reasons but decide to make this long journey to support Chelsea. It's a different kind of road trip, as its not a pilgrimage or a holiday. They make friends and enemies along the way and we gradually learn more about these three women.

It also reveals the prejudices that small-town America has for the homeless and also that there are good people to be found in the most unlikely places. The rigours and challenges of walking across a continent, with very little resources are well portrayed.

This is a very woman-centric book, there are a couple of male characters who are good people, but the majority are shallow, manipulative and self-serving, not to mention violent and unhinged. This I think is the only weak point I could find, but I am just being picky.

The ending was one of the most satisfying I have read all year even though it wasn't altogether unexpected.
Overall, a feelgood road-trip, What more can you need?