The Family Fortuna
By: Lindsay Eagar
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Published: March 7, 2023
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Dates Read: February 11, 2023 - February 18, 2023
Format: ARC / eBook

Trigger Warnings: Verbal abuse

The Family Fortuna is a story set in 1889 that follows a carnival circus run by the Fortuna family. It mostly follows Avita, a monstrous looking bird woman who is the daughter of the ringmaster of The Family Fortuna. It also goes into the POV of her family members: her brother, Lorenzo, her sister, Luna, and her mother and father. They’ve all lived and worked at the circus together, but their world changes when Avita meets an artist who isn’t afraid of her and gets commissioned to make new portraits of all the acts.

I enjoyed this historical fiction young adult debut novel set in a carnival/circus. It really gave a good dive into the behind the scenes of a circus in the 1880’s.

Some of the word choices threw me off, though I did chalk it up to the time period as well as the word choices of the characters, who do live in a circus. Though the word “fart(s)” always throws me off way more than it probably should, and the characters use it quite frequently to describe the worth of others. Sometimes the way that Avita would talk about her sister, Luna, was a little weird too – like talking about her breasts and her figure.

What I will say is the word choices that Avita uses to describe herself, thanks to being who she was and especially the way her dad would talk about her, was what really described to me how she looked. Because it slightly changed the further into the book you would go, because the confidence level of Avita changed. She was still a bird woman, but it felt less like the horror movie monster towards the end of the book.

The pacing of this was a little slow and towards the end I did end up skimming a lot of it. I feel like it could have been cut down a bit and the story still would have been fantastic.

Overall, this was a good historical read that shows the inner runnings of the circus back in the day. I can see those who like a little horror mixed with family drama enjoying this book.

*Thanks Publishers Weekly and Candlewick Press for a digital advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review