Name: That Time I Joined the Circus
ISBN: 9780545433815

J. J. Howard

After her father's sudden death and a break-up with her best friends, seventeen-year-old Lexi has no choice but to leave New York City seeking her long-absent mother, rumored to be in Florida with a traveling circus, where she just may discover her destiny.

That Time I Joined the Circus

Ella Dewars

I was so excited for this book. Mainly because there's a circus, also because the cover's pretty much gorgeous. I may have built up the whole circus thing to point this book could never reach (given that pretty much the only other circus book I've read was The Night Circus, which was absolutely awesome) and that may be my fault, but still. Big, fat, disappointment. At least to me.

The Good:
1. Yay, circus? (I'm trying really hard to come up with good things about this book, so go easy on me) Circus' are pretty awesome. Therefore, books set in or around a circus should also be awesome. This wasn't.

The Bad:
1. What's her face the main character. I didn't really care enough to remember her name, so I'm going to look it up. Lexi, or whatever it is that she's calling herself now. (You can't go from calling yourself Xandra to calling yourself Lexi and not expect me to be sarcastic about it.) For one thing, Xandra is kind of a stupid name (at least for her) because I somehow get the feeling that she picked it because she wanted to be "rebellious" and "special" and show that she's not like all those idiotic rich kids at her idiotic college prep school (cue the eyeroll). To put it nicely, Lexi is a confused teenager that doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. To put it not-so-nicely, Lexi (or Xandra, or whatevs) is a spoiled brat who makes a stupid-ass mistake and doesn't really do anything about it except cry. (view spoiler)[Cry until the guy that she had sex with when he was dating her only other friend comes back and decides that she's a freaking saint and deserves to be praised and coddled. Uh, no. Just... no. (hide spoiler)] Lexi doesn't really have any rhyme nor reason to anything she does, and she is your stereotypical female character that is happily anti-social (by choice, of course, because everyone else is stupid and unworthy), has only one or two friends (in this case two), and yet still manages to have sex with guy #1, kiss guy #'s 2 and 3, have a sorta-relationship with guy #3 after deciding guy #2 is a player, and then end up with guy #1 after he realizes that she's all he's ever wanted in this world (once again, major eyeroll). To be perfectly honest, I could complain about Lexi all day (and I have).
2. Where the hell is my circus. Where?! You can't promise me an awesome circus book and then pretty much ignore the fact that the circus exists! As Lexi herself points out once or twice, this circus is more like high school. There is no circus-y-ness. The few times there are attempts at circus-y-ness, it's a fail. A major fail. If you want a circus - don't read this. Go read The Night Circus, which I have previously mentioned as a beyond awesome book.
3. What's his face guy #3. I think his name is Eli. Yeah, he was an idiot. That's pretty much where that ends. You know what, let's just put all the characters here - the character's didn't really do a whole lot, they were all rather ditzy and idiotic, and I hated almost every single one of them. Especially Eli, 'cause he's the stupidest of all of them. (Except for Lexi. She's worse.)
4. Where the hell is the plot? Did we forget it? Did we decide to just be like "Girl loved boy and then dad died and then other boys were cute and then Yay, Mom! and then I know what I want to do with my life now"? Because let me tell you, that doesn't really work.

So, yeah... I'm giving this book two stars - I'm trying to be nice - and I now realize that the only reason I'm giving it two stars was because I actually read the entire thing instead of reading the first fifty pages and skimming/laughing at the rest. Sorry, J.J. Howard - I really tried to like your book. Really, I did. It just wasn't happening.

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

** Originally posted on Lost in Literature.

A circus book?! Yay!! As children, my brothers and I LOVED the circus!! Except for my extreme fear of clowns (which extends to everything in costume, not just clowns... FYI), going to the circus was something we always looked forward to. (As long as those creepy clowns kept their distance!!) Between the animals and the outright crazy performances (how do they DO some of that stuff?!) it was extreme entertainment, no matter what age.

Our main character, Lexi, the senior who would rather blend into the walls at school than stand out, has two friends... Eli and Bailey. She is more than frustrated when Bailey and Eli start dating, turning her into the third wheel. After a HUGE mistake and an unseen tragic event, she's left completely lost, emotionally and physically. She finds herself in dire straits and ventures off to parts unknown in hopes of finding her mother, who left her when she was very young. She ends up at a circus where her mother used to perform and decides to ask for a job to give her a place to stay while she searches for answers to her questions about her mother. 

The story flip-flops between past and present. This really helps to paint a full picture of Lexi's quest to find herself, and the events that led up to where she is currently. Each chapter also has lyrics to a song, with the band name and song title, which I really enjoyed. A few of the bands/singers were new to me, so I actually googled the songs. I loved that addition to the story!

That Time I Joined the Circus is sure to entertain. It has a mixture of circus fun, romance, love and loss. This is different than what I thought it was going to be like, but I was definitely satisfied with this novel.

That Time I Joined the Circus

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