Olympia Knife

by Alysia Constantine

Overview

Born into a family of flying trapeze artists, Olympia Knife has one small problem: When her emotions rise, she becomes invisible. Everyone in the traveling circus has learned to live with this quirk; they banded together to raise Olympia in a loving environment when her parents vanished midair during their act, never to return. But the same fate befalls Arnold, the world’s shortest man, followed by one act after another, until the show is a crumbling mess of tattered tents and terrified troupers. Into this chaos walks Diamond the Danger Eater. Olympia and Diamond forge a friendship, then fall in love, and, together, resolve to stand the test of time, even as the world around them falls apart.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781945053276
Publisher:	Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/01/2017
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.50(d)

Editorial Reviews

“[STARRED REVIEW]… Americans don’t have fairy tales: we have legends. Tall tales. Olympia Knife is a fabulous, luscious story that invokes a magical, yesteryear world. Filled with larger-than-life characters, this mesmerizing novel is a must... Their world is vibrant, dangerous, and a smart commentary on social prejudices against outsiders. Queer, differently-abled, fat, and nonwhite characters pack the pages. Set in the postbellum South, Olympia Knife is, at its core, a story about a culture that is no longer able to ignore its own diversity or the itch for change. Author Alysia Constantine is a superb writer whose distinctive, rich style makes Olympia Knife a pleasure from beginning to end.”—Foreword Reviews

“FOUR STARS… The world of Olympia Knife is one that goes beyond genre definitions and expectations. It’s a deft historical fantasy romance that addresses issues of queerness and marginalization through the lens of a tight-knit traveling circus. Constantine’s writing is evocative; it reads like a tale being told over a crackling campfire… [Olympia Knife is] a gentle historical fantasy with a hint of magic, perfect for readers who love queer romances and books such as Tipping the Velvet or Water For Elephants.”—RT Book Reviews

From the Publisher

2017-08-31
Born into a family of circus acrobats, Olympia Knife is unique in more ways than one. As she struggles to control her tendency toward literal invisibility, she must also navigate her burgeoning love for the newest star of the circus: Diamond the Danger Eater.Constantine's (Sweet, 2016) second novel opens with the midact, midair disappearance of Alban and Julia, the Flying Knifes, as their young daughter watches from the trapeze platform. Olympia has been raised in the tightknit nucleus of the Stephens Great Attraction traveling circus, where her sporadic transparency blends in with the unique gifts of the fabulous Minnie the Fat Lady, Madame Barbue the Bearded Woman, Robin the Rubber Boy, and many others. As the book progresses, she is forced to confront the impermanence of even the closest of these relationships as, one by one, the members of her circus family begin to vanish into the ether. At the same time, Olympia finds herself falling in love with a mysterious newcomer—Diamond, who performs a dashing sword-swallowing act—and transforming her own identity into that of Nova the Half Man. As she struggles to navigate her unfamiliar emotions, her fluctuating visibility, and the unravelling of her livelihood when the circus grinds to a denuded halt, Olympia must thrust herself into the forefront of her life in order to preserve her own place within it. Though there is a tremendous amount happening in this novel, the similarity in the back stories of the characters, as well as a tendency to narrate even the most climactic of injuries, consummations, and murders in the same expository tone, renders the book hazy. The powerful central theme is similarly blurred by inconsistencies in the main characters' development (Olympia is both mousy and bold, Diamond both daring and prone to collapse in indecisive tears) and plot progression issues that find characters spending entire chapters rising from bed only to sink back into the same bed, exhausted, without much happening in between. A book that intends to balance on the fine wire of the exploitative-freak-show trope in order to render a point about inclusion and identity but succeeds instead in crafting a series of more-or-less familiar freak-show character sketches.

Kirkus Reviews