Sneha Ravi

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Took me a while to get a grip of where the book was going. The book starts off with how the author came to adore The Princess Bride written by Mr S. Morgenstern. I did some research and understood that the whole Morgenstern bit and related commentary was fictional. Once I got to the part of the princess bride I got hooked and could not put the book down. The author's commentary throughout the story was also so much fun to read. I would put this one up on my list of favorites.

I would say the book has an apt title as it is exactly that. Though the plot is the stretched out dual between two magicians, it is the circus itself that is the soul of the book and what ultimately outlives it's preordained lifetime. I liked the way the story unfolds slowly switching between two timelines until the earlier catches up to the second. It remained unpredictable for me until almost the end which kept my interest. The end I thought could have been better. Overall great storyline and setting.

I started reading the book not knowing what to expect. The title says Fairy Tale but you don't see any signs of that until way later. I turned a few pages and then could not stop turning. I fell in love with Charlie, his dad, Mr Bowditch and of course Radar. The first third of the book was written as a slice of life where Charlie ends up taking care of the old and grumpy Mr Bowditch. How even the not so agreeable Mr Bowditch endeared to me is a testament on the brilliant writing entailed in this part of the book. Now after reading the entire book, I so wish that the fairy tale bit never started. Cause that's where it starts to become a drag. The only thing that kept me going was Charlie and Radar. None of the characters introduced later on stuck. The classic good versus bad story. Why and how Charlie fell for Leah I never understood. Leah was such an unremarkable character that every time she came into the story line I was annoyed. Some of the Deep Maleen inmates were far more interesting. The plot carries on and goes to a not very interesting climax. The only relief was Charlie going back and the scene with his Dad at the end. It isn't all bad but if one loses the urge to continue reading 75 percent into the book then may be that's not worth too much praise.