I'm undecided between 3 and 4 stars. At first it was kind of a drag, and I even considered putting it down, but eventually I became involved enough with the mysterious characters to keep on reading to find out what was going to happen. Maybe because I never did like the main characters, but rather became enchanted by the circus itself and the supporting characters instead (and they only show later on). The style, full of whimsical descriptions, makes the story sort of slow but I grew to enjoy it. The ending was unfortunately bland. It's a very visually imaginative book, though.