Spectacle by Rachel Vincent

Oh my, so in case you’re new around her, one of my favourite authors is Rachel Vincent. And I’ve followed her around (without being or sound at all stalkerish) for close to 13 years, since I picked up her debut novel by chance. If you don’t know what I’m talking about go and hunt down her Shifter series. You’ll thank me later.

Anyway, I’m trying not to digress here because today I’m talking about Spectacle the stunning sequel to her novel Menagerie. And in case you’ve missed that one, check out this post to find out what I thought about that book.

We pick up where we left off at the end of Menagerie with Delilah and the crew travelling around the country with the circus, only everyone is their own bosses they’re free and only locked up in cages when there on show or officials around. It’s basically the dream, but it does come with its downfalls. Delilah and the Menagerie are trying to buy back everyone who has been sold, so children, siblings and partners are all flocking back, but they’re running out of money and out of chances.

Delilah thinks that she can keep it going indefinitely, the others aren’t so sure and when they’re poached and found out, they are taken into the care of the travelling group called Spectacle (the book’s namesake) and that’s where the things in the Menagerie looks so tamed. Each of the “inmates” are collared with a dampener that renders their natural abilities useless and is used to keep them in check. Delilah is an exception because they don’t know what she is, it’s hard to restrain a woman of the furiae.

Along the way there are fights to the death, loyalties tested and minds wiped that leads to Delilah becoming pregnant and not knowing who the father of her unborn child is.

Vincent’s writing is amazing in this novel. The layers in this story are unparalleled and I couldn’t put it down…so much so I was so late to pick up my mum from the airport when she came to see me, I can’t even say that I’m sorry.

Again Vincent used different point of views to push the message along and had third person narration all the way through with the exception of Delilah, which is in first person, which…as a fan of attempting to do both in a novel and not feeling like they meshed well enough, she seemed to hit the nail on the head with it all. It’s so freaking amazing. This is probably the single most amazing technical part that I fan girl over time and time again because it’s such a beautiful thing to read and even knowing that it was in it, it didn’t take away from the whole novel.

Sometimes I like to peak at what some of the other reviewers right about it and they all found the shift jarring, but I loved it. More please and thank you.

The pacing in this book is the kind that keeps you reading on it, I think I chewed through this book in a matter of hours, which is saying something, but I always find that with Vincent’s writing I am always on the edge of my seat with it. I could bathe in her words and still want more.

With this novel, the only downfall? The sequel still isn’t out! Where is it? I need it in my hands already.

Now I pass it on to you, get your hands on it, any way you can, and read it. Once you read it, hit me back and tell me what you think about it, I’d love to know whether you agree or disagree with this. Let’s get a conversation going around this.