Danu is a tightrope walker who is mourning her parents, after a disease has ravaged the circus where she grew up. Her mother has entrusted her with a locket that hides a secret.Over the years, Danu pushes away her grief and develops elaborate and successful high-wire acts with Morrie, a charismatic hunchback who wants to marry her. When the circus returns to Danu's birthplace, Matryoshka, Danu is enchanted by the temples, spice mists, and pleasure seekers within the intoxicating outer circle district.
Here, she finally gains the courage to open her mother's locket, and discovers the name of a stranger who lives behind the locked gate of the Inner Circle. Fated to remain in Matryoshka, Danu attempts to resolve this mystery . . .
Will she and Morrie ever be reunited, or will something far more unexpected be waiting for her in the mysterious heart of the city?
This a beautifully written book with a promising plot but the execution is lacking.
The text is thick with motifs and symbolism to reinforce the search, the loneliness and the mystical otherness. Duna's poetry, interactions with sage-like strangers, introspection, dreams, visions, incantations, prayers and conversations with animals saturate the text and demand attention. Scenes with horses, spiders and magpies were always welcome, for me. Furthermore, all those that breathed life into the inanimate -- I relished them all.
However I found everyone in this story so cold, and the protagonist Danu is the worst offender, so entirely unlikeable and frustrating. Her pain at the loss of her parents feels like a overreaction and the man that tried to assult her, well she got away without any injuries. I am in no way saying that either of those incindents arent terrible and heartbreaking but Danu felt unrealisticly morbid and depressed.
Most other characters aren’t as egregious as Danu, but there’s no warmth or depth in any of them. Morrie bordered on the obsessive occasionally.None of them felt like real people at all - at least, not people I could care about and if I can’t care about them, why would I be interested in their story?
I kept going in hopes that it the tale would finally lift off when they reached Matryoshka, the eponymous City of Circles, but the characters just plodded on in the same, flat, dreary, two dimensional way they did from the start. It’s all so desperately slow - far too much detail when it’s not needed, far too little when it is. It feels unfinished somehow; like a lot of notes - excellent ideas, that could have been made into something special - were simply corralled into a passable narrative with no energy or passion behind it. The allusions and treatment to sex was a little odd as well, it had a veil of obsession and vulgarity over it that was anything but erotic.
Regarding the setting of this story, again, who knows? Is this past time, present time, near future, post-apocalyptic? Or is it not Earth, but a different world, or dimension? Not told or even implyied. There are mentions of science, surgical masks, viruses are known, but horses are still used as means of transportation. There are letters as a means of communication, with no telephones, no internet but plastic is mentioned. Clothing seemed like a mix of many things. I don't think electricity is ever mentioned.
My absolutely favourite parts where from the house's percpective when Danu reaches Matryoshka. I thought the idea of a narrative from an inanimate object was so unique and beautiful.
The ending and "great revel" felt flat and rushed without the proper build up of any sense of suspense, drama and didn't seem to fit with the tone of the rest of the book. Over all a book that I was hoping to be full of magic and drama, ended up flat, slow and a little disappointing.
Age Rating 16+. Sex, death and one attempted rape and talk of rape.
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