Name: The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus
ISBN: 9781945009341

Alanna McFall

Chelsea is determined to make it to her brother's wedding. And she's not going to let the fact that she's been dead for two years stop her. This humorous and lightly macabre journey explores relationships, personal burdens, and what it means to keep moving, even when your heartbeat has stopped.

The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus

Jude Silberfeld

High heels, a patch of ice, a train… Chelsea’s life ended abruptly and not in a pretty way. But she won’t let death stop her from attending her brother’s wedding. Which means she needs to get from New York (an interesting place to be a ghost in, fyi) to San Francisco.

Being a spirit, she can’t take a plane nor a car, which go right through her, so she’ll have to walk (hover?) there. Two friends join her on her trip: Carmen, who died decades earlier and is sort of mentoring her into ghosthood, and Cyndricka, a homeless mute Black mime who, for some reason, can see and communicate with ghosts even though she’s not dead.

The relationship between the three travelers is both incredibly unusual and plausible. On their way to California, they also meet the cutest cat, other ghosts and living people, some good, some bad, or even dangerous. I loved Jamie, who sounds like the sweetest ghost ever even without a face. That’s one of the things I loved best about this novel, how the undead keep the appearance they had when they died and are not all ethereally perfect beings.

Despite the subject, there’s nothing heavy about the story, it’s more subtle and penetrating. I don’t think I can explain why I loved this book (yet another excellent debut) so much without giving too much away. It’s not about twists and surprises, it’s all about the way the feelings are built up, how they grow. Like most road trips (at least in books and movies), this one is both a journey cross-country and to themselves.

I took forever to get to this novel (dead people, anxiety, sadness…) and that was stupid of me since it’s made it straight to my favourite-books-of-the-year list. It’s one of the most poetic and charming novels I’ve read. It’s tender and bittersweet, it made me cry and smile at the same time.

The author mentions “the blessing of small miracles” at one point, and that’s exactly what this novel is.

I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

Geneviève Rouleau

This book is really fast and easy to read, and that's a good thing because... I felt very bored with the whole story. It felt as flat as the road the characters took to travel through the USA. 

There were just too many things that felt absolutely unrealistic about this story. Like traveling on foot through the USA, without much talk of the physical and mental impact on the body. Or like how two (of the three) characters lied about their reasons to travel through the USA. Ooooor also how the characters are from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, with a lot of LGBTQ references. But these identities just feel pasted on, and there isn't really talk of the social issues they might encounter. 

Things I did enjoy : the portrayal of strong and close-knit women, the banter, and the Mime! I thought that was a very original addition to the story. 

So yeah. This story fell flat for me, and I think the plot and the characters could've been developed more. 2⭐

The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus

Reviews

Highlights