Book Watch: THE CIRQUE by Ryann Kerekes

The Cirque by Ryann Kerekes is expected to release on March 2, 2013.

I love finding books randomly.  I found out about this book through a random Google search.  I checked out the reviews on Goodreads, and they make me want to read it even more.

It sounds like a young adult version of Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, which I loved.  However, instead of it being about the guy falling in love with the unattainable girl, it is a girl falling in love with a mysterious guy with a wretched past.  From my understanding, it is about a goodie-two-shoes that is trying to find her independent place in the world.  She winds up the cirque and begins an organic romance with a guy that carries a lot of baggage.  Essentially, they balance each other out and unintentionally show the each other the meanings of life.

Goodreads summarizes it as:

Eighteen-year-old ballerina Ariel is determined to experience life outside the dance studio. She auditions for the cirque on a whim, and though ballet training didn’t prepare her for dodging knives, she refuses to flinch and wins the spot of target girl alongside Gabriel, the mysterious knife-thrower. There’s something unmistakably dangerous yet tempting about Gabriel’s crystal blue eyes and tattoos. She’s determined to solve the mystery of his past after learning he’s on the run from the law. Especially since the distraction is just what she needs to avoid admitting to her parents she was dismissed from her ballet contract.

The more she learns about Gabriel, the scars on his body, the foster homes he grew up in, and his fascination with knives, she knows she should run the other way, but that boy’s like crack, oh so bad for you, yet addicting as hell. When he’s arrested and forced to deal with his past, she has to choose between putting her own life back together and dealing with her parents, or taking a chance on Gabriel, as no one else has.

The Cirque is a contemporary new adult romance.

I am most excited to read about the beautiful relationship the reviews are raving about, as well as the setting. There is so much action in a cirque and I want to see Kerekes' portrayal of the performers, behind the scenes action, everything that makes up a cirque.  Is the cirque a character of its own or is it merely a place?  I am interested to see the cirque in relation to the protagonists' relationship.  It is a metaphor, it is the place where they feel most united/at home, or is it a place of distress?

Kerekes even has a playlist for it!

Definitely on my to-read shelf.

-Mariela

The Cirque by Ryann Kerekes
265 pages
Expected publication: March 2nd 2013