A review by liralen
Harley in the Sky by Akemi Dawn Bowman
3.0
The second [b:circus|43809328|Trapeze|Leigh Ansell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549068100l/43809328._SY75_.jpg|39933767] book I've read in as many months. In both books, the heroines have grown up around the circus, but in Harley in the Sky, the bulk of the plot takes place in circus life.
But for all that Harley has grown up around the circus, she's not grown up performing, and her parents don't want her involved in the circus. Instead she ends up with a travelling circus that is, from the very beginning (seriously, not a spoiler) described as having wildly unethical practices. It's Harley who tells us this first, but it's also Harley who leaps eyes wide open into that cesspit (and then is surprised and upset when she's mistreated).
And that's...hard to take at times. She's so willing to screw over not only her parents but her entirely community, and while later in the book she decides that what she did is unforgivable, it feels pretty surface (not to mention utterly devoid of consequences). I couldn't help but think that it would have been much more complex if Harley hadn't known at first what Maison du Mystère's practices were—or, better, if she'd had to make ethical choices more than once, and faced ethical quandaries that she didn't bring back to her own options and opportunities. It's painful to see her whine to her parents and friends that said parents didn't give her a choice, that her only options were to do what her parents wanted (go to college) or screw them over. What about the many many middle-ground options? What about other circuses that aren't described as terrible places? What about asking her parents why they are so anti-circus when they literally own a circus? How has this never come up before? Everything else, including the maybe-bipolar disorder or maybe-depression (to some extent discussed, but not fully and not named) feels like window dressing on top of this.
But for all that Harley has grown up around the circus, she's not grown up performing, and her parents don't want her involved in the circus. Instead she ends up with a travelling circus that is, from the very beginning (seriously, not a spoiler) described as having wildly unethical practices. It's Harley who tells us this first, but it's also Harley who leaps eyes wide open into that cesspit (and then is surprised and upset when she's mistreated).
And that's...hard to take at times. She's so willing to screw over not only her parents but her entirely community, and while later in the book she decides that what she did is unforgivable, it feels pretty surface (not to mention utterly devoid of consequences). I couldn't help but think that it would have been much more complex if Harley hadn't known at first what Maison du Mystère's practices were—or, better, if she'd had to make ethical choices more than once, and faced ethical quandaries that she didn't bring back to her own options and opportunities. It's painful to see her whine to her parents and friends that said parents didn't give her a choice, that her only options were to do what her parents wanted (go to college) or screw them over. What about the many many middle-ground options? What about other circuses that aren't described as terrible places? What about asking her parents why they are so anti-circus when they literally own a circus? How has this never come up before? Everything else, including the maybe-bipolar disorder or maybe-depression (to some extent discussed, but not fully and not named) feels like window dressing on top of this.