Pantomime

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: From the USA Today-bestselling author of Dragonfall comes a fantasy trilogy about a circus aerialist's quest to escape his past and decipher the magical prophecy that will shape his future

In a land of lost wonders, the past is stirring once more . . .

Micah runs away from a debutante’s life at home and joins the circus, harboring two secrets–one: he was born between male and female, and two: he may have powers last seen in mysterious beings from an almost-forgotten age. Micah discovers the joy of flight as an aerialist, courting his trapeze partner, Aenea, and confiding in the mysterious white clown, Drystan. He finally feels free. But the circus has a dark side, and Micah’s past isn’t done show more with him.

Meanwhile, the strange 'ghost' of a woman with damselfly wings whispers to Micah that only he can help magic return to the realm, and he fears she may be right...Micah has much to learn, and he must do it quickly—before his past and future collide, with catastrophic consequences.

Pantomime is a gorgeous and inventive fantasy with queer elements, inspired by Victorian Scotland. L.R. Lam weaves a coming-of-age tale, stirrings of first love, and prophetic whispers into this unforgettable first installment of the Micah Grey series.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Raised female as Iphiginia Laurus, PoV character Micah is always aware that the life of a privileged debutante is not just uninteresting to contemplate, it's also a violation of the essential self...recreated as Micah, then adds another identity called Gene...that's never going to fit into a world of binaries.

Major spoiler? When the publisher markets these revised and rereleased stories as "the Micah Grey series," I don't think it applies. Intersex people presenting themselves openly are vanishingly rare in both literary and real-life culture. Micah moving from female-presenting to male-presenting might not be ideal, but considering we live in an obsessed-by-binaries culture, it's honest.

Coming to terms with one's essential being's Otherness, coming of age in a world with Procrustean expectations and draconian penalties for failing to meet them, and falling in love while not falling off the highwire, as Micah navigates...enough for ten volumes of story. Author Lam packs a lot into a modest page count.

Revised (I am reliably informed extensively) more than a decade after bowing as an indie-published title, the DAW Books edition was my introduction to the circus world and its denizens. I like stories set in circuses, while disliking circuses themselves. (I will not knowingly go to a place where there are clowns and/or mimes.) The opportunities for honest exploration of self, of identities that make the normies cringe (like I do around clowns/mimes) are perfection for addressing YA audiences who are in their questing and questioning years. In this case, the protagonist knows, has powerful physical evidence for knowing, that the world demands too much when it insists there is no fluidity in our gender presentation. The protagonist falls in love, for the first time, and realizes that's really what matters...connection, caring, the desire to know and be known...all presented as worthy, ordinary quests for one to engage in. All this is set in a fantasy secondary world, one base on Scotland it would seem; one that's got elements of urban fantasy, steampunk-lite, and high fantasy.

Why choose is Author Lam's message as well as praxis. Much is discovered about this world, despite very little being directly said. It becomes a bit troublesome. While Micah's flashbacks to the past as Iphiginia are crystal-clear, with very sharp lines of conflict, the present-day Micah/Gene is not clearly in conflict with the circus's other oddballs and misfits yet lives in fear of being "outed" as intersex to them. Why? Never explained.

A few other things felt odd, like Aenea's oddly-pitched response to Micah's evident falling in love. So the read isn't perfect, but honestly I'm not mad about it. I'm happy to see someone making real and substantive excursions from the tediously heteronormative blob of YA publishing's masses of pages.

A solid four stars for the 2025 revisions! show less

As usual, I’m mystified at Strange Chemistry choice with its blurb, so I’ll be straight with you – the Very Big Secret hinted at didn’t seem like a huge secret to me. In fact, it was obvious to me from the very first view-point switch between Micah and Gene. I have thought long and hard about this, and I think it’s because the author has written in first person, and the voices of Gene and Micah are indistinguishable. So when I came to write this review and read the blurb, I thought to myself, oh wasn’t I meant to figure out three chapters in? Maybe not.

Pantomime is a 2013 début that exists in that ambiguous space between YA fantasy and fantasy written for an adult audience. It’s themes and plot are nothing like show more traditional YA, but the ages of the protagonists and their story lends itself to marketing as YA. As such, I really liked it. It’s not as vapid and romance-oriented as most of the YA I read, but it wasn’t too heavy handed with its politics and world building. In essence, Pantomime features the best of Fantasy written for both audiences.

I loved the setting of the book – in the midst of a travelling circus! I haven’t read a circus-book before and the way Laura Lam describes life in a circus engaging. I enjoyed the myriad of characters that from the circus, the acrobats, clowns and freaks, and I applaud the author at having created such a dimensional secondary cast. The primary cast is even more nuanced, more relatable, not only Gene and Micah, but the trapeze artist Aenea and Drystan, one of the clowns. All the circus performers have been shunned by society, they all have their secrets and vices, which makes for a cast more realistic than usually seen in fantasy.

The fantasy element in Pantomime is subtle and gradually makes itself known throughout the narrative. I really liked it, and certain hints dropped by the author regarding the history of the world have piqued my interest. Luckily there is a sequel in the works, which I hope will shed some light on the world and its magic, and Micah’s place in it all.

That Very Big Secret? Micah is intersex – he and Gene are the same person. Micah struggles to find a place for himself in a world that doesn’t understand how he never fit into traditional feminine roles as Gene, and doesn’t fit into the masculine ones as Micah. Gene is far too boisterous and un-ladylike for her mother’s liking, and her parents make her see doctors and specialists in the hopes that she can be cured. Her future – to make an advantageous marriage and cease being a burden on her parents – doesn’t seem especially enticing, especially after one of the young men in her social circles discovers her secret and treats her abominably. Her only solace is her brother Cyril, who accepts her just the way she is and loves her fiercely. Forced to flee her home because of her parent’s plans for her, Gene decides to live as a boy, Micah, and join the circus. There he is razed and bullied as the new comer, but never gives up and is grudgingly accepted into the ranks of the performers. But he has to continually hide his past, and his family has a Shadow, a detective who works outside the law, looking for him. To make matters worse, he finds himself falling for a girl, and doesn’t know how to tell her about his ‘condition’.

I enjoyed reading Pantomime immensely, and recommend it to those who like Fantasy and Young Adult alike. I think Laura Lam has written a book that has something for everyone, which is a commendable aspect of a début novel.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review.
You can read more of my reviews at Speculating on SpecFic. show less

Iphigenia Laurus has a secret. A huge secret, one her parents encourage her to keep for fear of scandal, and one she shares only with her maid and her brother. She's happy enough until the day she finds out her parents are going to betray her, then she runs away. As Micah Grey she hides in R.H. Ragona's Circus of Magic, finding a place where he may not be able to share his secret but where he feels more at home than ever before.

The secret? Iphigenia/Micah has both male and female sexual organs. Despite a loathing of corsets (either to support or bind) they seem comfortable as themself, or at least on the way to being comfortable. They're still wary of what others may think, based on past hurts and based on that ultimate parental show more betrayal: their parents were going to have their male sex organs removed, without their permission or even knowledge.

Micah meets Drystan, the clown with a secret not quite as deep as his, and Aenea, the girl he falls for. He also discovers a frightening and strange connection with ancient technology/magic.

While reading this I was surprised at how upbeat Micah managed to remain. And I was very pleased with how he was able to stay connected with his brother--and with how supportive his brother was of him. Regarding the spoilers, I thought they were amazingly well handled, with sensitivity and care.
I fell into this book and didn't surface until I'd finished. It's well written, with believable characters, and an interesting storyline with nothing wasted and nothing extraneous. I highly recommend this book. show less

Well, this book was a shocker. I thought it was just going to be another circus story. Boy, was I ever wrong! The synopsis in no way prepares you for the story inside Pantomime. There is quite a huge twist that left me bumfazzled (Yes, totally made that word up) yet pleasantly surprised.

Pantomime focuses on the story of Micah Grey, a runaway with a big secret. It also explores Iphigenia, a young girl trying to escape her family and tired of having her future decided for her.

It is so hard to review this book and not freak out over how I felt about it. Especially, because I don’t want to giveaway anything because the twists and surprises are what makes it so amazing to read. The characters were so well formed, as well as the world show more they were in.

I cannot wait to find out more about the Penglass structures and all of the mythology that the characters kept bringing up. I hope that is fleshed out more in book two.

4 stars to Pantomime. show less

Where do I start? Let me just say that I have a huge, unwavering respect for Laura Lam for doing what she did in her debut - she took a huge risk, pulled it off, and I'm still more than slightly in awe of the process in which she used to do so. To be honest, YA needs more writers like her, regardless of genre. "Pantomime" was absolutely stunning from start to finish, and will make you want to move to Ellada by the end of the book. If you want something deliciously new and thrilling and absolutely magical, "Pantomime" is definitely your book. Note that this review may have some spoilers in it, so you've been warned. Also, I use certain pronouns in this review, so if you get confused, please go here for further information.

So, I guess I show more should start with the thing I liked the most: our main character: Gene/Micah. Lam took a huge risk with making her character intersex (not transgender, but someone actually born with both sets of bits)/genderqueer/genderfluid - also known as non-binary gendered, and going with that as a big part of hir (accepted pronoun for someone intersex or in the midst of transition when transgendered) major journey/transition arc. Because this isn't just Gene/Micah's story, it's also the story of the Ragona Circus, and everyone within it - though maybe I'd say it's split pretty evenly in terms of whose story it is. It's also the story of the Alders, a lost people with lost artefacts called Vestige, but I have a feeling we'll get to see more of that in book two (since Lam did confirm over twitter there would be a book two, so yay!). Gene/Micah hurts so very much, but ze (also accepted pronoun for someone of intersex/trans origin) has so much going for hir and Lam does the most courageous thing - not couching it in a contemporary story of bullying or suicide, but instead crafts it into a fantasy tale of wonder and triumph. Lam makes it not just about Gene/Micah, but about a possibly mythical Alder being called the Kedi, someone exactly like Gene/Micah who was worshipped as a demi-god. If that isn't ultimate empowerment to the transgender/intersex/genderqueer community, I don't know what is. But all I know is that I liked it, and I definitely want more. Gene/Micah is incredibly hard-working, sassy, but also humble when ze needs to be. Ze knows who ze wants to be and runs with it, knowing that ultimately, it's something that may lose hir hir family and friends forever.

As someone who has a certain degree of gender dysphoria (specifically, genderfluidity issues but not enough for me to wish to change the plumbing, if you know what I mean), I can't tell you what this book means to me. I was getting so very very sick of those YA "tough stuff" issue novels that had the MC depressed or suicidal or bullied because of their gender issues, and I wanted to see an MC that could be happy with themselves (or rather, comfortable in their own skin) even with gender issues. While "Pantomime" does not make the journey to this contentedness with self easy (oh no, not at all), it was still refreshing to see someone of genderfluid/genderqueer/etc origins finally get to that sense of being okay with hirself in the end. Or at least, more comfortable and okay with hirself compared to the start of the book. So this book? It means a lot. It feels like a triumph, and it makes me feel a little bit okay about myself. So I have to thank Lam for this book on those grounds alone.

Out of the gender arena, I have to say: the worldbuilding, the characters, the sensory imagery? Those are more or less flawless so I won't be talking about those too much. Seriously. Even for the ARC version I read? It was dangerously close to flawless and that's always a good thing. I'll just say this about the world: combine a somewhat familiar world we already know, plus huge high-fantasy-heavy remnants of a previous civilization plus Victorian/Edwardian-era societal norms? That's what Ellada is. And it's glorious.

Let's talk about the romance: there are several instances of romances/crushes/etc in this book with both genders, to varying degrees going from crush to actual romance/love. I like how vividly and honestly Lam portrays Gene's (and later Micah's) encounters - being blunt and saying which is a crush, and which isn't, and that was nice. As for the semi-love triangle? Because it plugged in so deeply to Gene/Micah's issues, I can forgive it. Because it literally meant, in some areas, having to choose a gender. And while I can't claim to know what that feels like (not in the least), I do know the stress of having to hide that secret of identity (be it sexual choice or just gender-based) from someone. And it really made me feel for Gene/Micah. I really hope Lam continues to explore this more in book two, but for book one, it was pretty powerful stuff.

One last thing - semi-retellings. There's heavy high-fantasy genre elements in this book, as I've mentioned before, but it also mixes original mythology on Lam's behalf with Greek mythology - specifically, Styx (the river) but retold as more of a hell-sort of place, or so it's implied (since it's used as a swear word). I really loved the mythology in this book along with the religious elements Lam constructed, and it really made the world all the more richer.

Final verdict? Even if you're not really sure about where you stand on transgender/intersex/genderqueer issues, you really, really, really need to read this book. Much like David Levithan's "Every Day", this book addresses a lot of those trans issues, and in a very clear way. Definitely with a bullet at number one at my favorite for 2013 so far, "Pantomime" is out now from Strange Chemistry in both the UK and in North America, so be sure to check it out when you can. And look forward to an interview with Lam on the blog about the construction of "Pantomime" very soon!

(posted to goodreads, shelfari, librarything, and birthofanewwitch.wordpress.com) show less

Pantomime by début novelist Laura Lam is an enchanting read. The main character is intersex, something I didn't realise until I started reading and initially I blamed my ignorance on not reading the blurb because historically Strange Chemistry blurbs have been terrible. However, as I have now discovered, this blurb wasn't terrible and did not spoil anything. Huzzah! (Well, it's not perfect, but it's a start.) In celebration of the first Strange Chemistry blurb I've read that hasn't given the entire plot away, I reproduce it for you here:

R.H. Ragona's Circus of Magic is the greatest circus of Ellada.
Nestled among the glowing blue Penglass – remnants of a mysterious
civilisation long gone – are wonders beyond the wildest show more imagination.
It’s a place where anything seems possible, where if you close your eyes
you can believe that the magic and knowledge of the vanished Chimeras
is still there. It’s a place where anyone can hide.

Iphigenia Laurus, or Gene, the daughter of a noble family, is uncomfortable in
corsets and crinoline, and prefers climbing trees to debutante balls.
Micah Grey, a runaway living on the streets, joins the circus as an
aerialist’s apprentice and soon becomes the circus’s rising star. But
Gene and Micah have balancing acts of their own to perform, and a secret
in their blood that could unlock the mysteries of Ellada.

As I was saying, the main character is intersex, having some female and some male characteristics. She was raised as Gene, a noble woman-in-training, but never felt at home in the role of noble woman. Things come to a head and she runs away, changes her name to Micah Grey and joins the circus as a boy. The bulk of story is told through two time lines: one starting from Micah's first day in the circus and one chronicling Gene's life in the days before she runs away. I liked the way Micah's past was gradually revealed through Gene's story. Some aspects were hinted at in Micah's story before we read about them in Gene's and some we read about in Gene's timeline before seeing some of the ramifications in Micah's. I thought they played off each other well and I was almost disappointed when Gene's timeline ran out (as we always knew it had to).

I have to say, Lam's choice to write in first person was a good one. Micah/Gene refer to themselves in the gender-neutral "I" leaving all the gendered pronouns up to the other characters to utter. A neat solution. Of course, there are times when Micah questions whether he is doing or feeling something as a man or as a woman, and a lot of the story focusses on him finding out who he is as a person, but it works well.

Something Pantomime got me thinking about philosophically was the nature of secrets, especially damaging personal ones. Gene was brought up knowing very well that no one could ever find out "what" she was. Only a few close family members knew and both she and her parents knew there would be dire consequences if the wrong people found out. Micah has to hide the same secret as well as the secret of his origins. Mild spoilers follow. Skip to the next paragraph if you wish to avoid them.As Micah grows romantically close with one of his fellow performers, he is faced with the question of how to tell her and when. Of course he puts it off and as a reader it was obvious that there would be consequences to perpetuating the lie. However, as he was angsting about how to tell her and how she would take it, I couldn't help but think that his continuing to keep the secret was not his fault. It was inevitable that the love interest would be upset that he hadn't told her sooner, but how could he have? Experience and common sense strongly suggested that things would not go well for him if he did and I don't think it was wrong of him to keep it from her for as long as possible. End spoilers.

The other notable aspect of Pantomime was the worldbuilding. It was surprisingly extensive and well thought through for a YA book. A lot of it remained in the background, apart from things like the city Micah came from and the social hierarchy. It wasn't until I was further in that I realised that there was much more to the worldbuilding than evident on the surface of the story and I started hoping for a sequel so that it could all be fully explored. I also kind of wanted to see a map of the place, not because I was confused about where places were (there's not that much travelling) but because I was curious. Luckily when I got to the end it strongly suggested that there would in fact be a sequel (and a visit to the author's website confirmed my suspicions). It finished in a fairly self-contained way so that a sequel isn't necessary to enjoy the book, but Micah's story is also definitely not over

Pantomime was a great read. I recommend it to all fans of non-standard YA books. I think readers of adult fantasy books will also enjoy it. It felt more like a "grown up" fantasy book than a YA book (not that there's anything anti-YA in it and, well, it is a coming-of-age story) and I think it could just as easily have been marketed to the adult fantasy market, despite the protagonist's age. (Of course, YA is probably a better marketing choice.) So if you're not usually into YA but like fantasy books and the idea of running away to join the circus interests you, I strongly urge you to give Pantomime a go. I await the eventual sequel with excitement.

4.5 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog. show less

This past week, I've raced my way through volumes one and two of the Micah Grey trilogy. Now, I'll have to wait until it's closer to the publication date to read volume three.

What I loved about this book
• a central character who is physically non-binary and is determined to stay that way in the face of a family and society that wants them to cross to one side of the line or the other and remain there
• the adventure of running off, then joining a circus
• the many different kinds of relationships that develop between our central character and those already a part of the circus
• the hint a struggle on behalf of all those who are neither one nor the other in any number of ways

What I was less enthusiastic about
• our central show more character knows they want to remain as they are, but also feels deep shame about being as they are, though I understand that this is an likely way to respond to living among those who will never find them satisfactory until they abandon central parts of who they are

Pantomime offers the beginning of what I am almost certain will be a marvelous adventure with—I hope—a world with where "not me" doesn't equate with "evil" by the time the trilogy ends. show less