The First Bright Thing
The circus train arrives in town as if by magic. No one sees it come or go. Each night, there is a special guest in the audience whose life has taken a bleak turn. The circus provides an experience that mends the ill. The circus is run by three women – Ringmaster (or Rin); her wife, Odette; and their friend, Mauve. The circus acts are all ‘Sparks’, possessing a superpower. Odette is a healer. Mauve is a seer – looking through time. The Menagerie Woman can turn into any animal. The production manager, Maynard, can replicate himself to produce a full circus crew. Kell has real wings. They are a close-knit family of ‘freaks’ who, outside the world of the circus, would be hunted down by wagon men (reminiscent of dog-catchers), and sent to sanatoriums.
Mauve’s ability to look through time and Rin’s power to ‘jump’ to other places take them backwards and forwards in time from 1926. There is a dark threat and an abusive relationship lurking in Rin’s past. The women encounter the horrors of the 20th century in brief flashes: gas in the First World War trenches; Nazi book burnings; the Holocaust; the Blitz; D-Day beaches; and Hiroshima. Rin hopes to intervene in the hellscape of the future and stop the Second World War: ‘But what good was she, jumping around and staring at scenes like a tourist?… Sometimes, it felt like as soon as you outran yesterday, it was right back in front of you.’
The three lead characters are well-drawn, and the circus performances are vivid. The villain is spine-chilling. There is plenty of convincingly drawn pain and motivation mixed in with the magic, although an occasional over-emphasis on dialogue slows down the pace. J.R. Dawson’s first novel is an accomplished dark fantasy, exploring mitzvah, the good deed.
