Name: Pantomime, Shadowplay & Masquerade
Authors: Laura Lam
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, LGBT+
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Rating: ★★★★★
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In a land of lost wonders, the past is stirring once more . . .
Gene’s life resembles a debutante’s dream. Yet she hides a secret that would see her shunned by the nobility. Gene is both male and female. Then she displays unwanted magical abilities – last seen in mysterious beings from an almost-forgotten age. Matters escalate further when her parents plan a devastating betrayal, so she flees home, dressed as a boy.The city beyond contains glowing glass relics from a lost civilisation. They call to her, but she wants freedom not mysteries. So, reinvented as ‘Micah Grey’, Gene joins the circus. As an aerialist, she discovers the joy of flight – but the circus has a dark side. She’s also plagued by visions foretelling danger. A storm is howling in from the past, but will she heed its roar?
KEY WORDS: Intersex, queer, magical, circus, adventure, coming of age, SO SO GOOD.
I had the pleasure of meeting Laura Lam at the release party for The Song Rising in Edinburgh in March of this year. She told me about the Micah Grey series and that she would be at YALC in the summer so I figured I would buy Pantomime and read it before I met her again. I failed. I spent half the time too busy with finishing university and the other half staring at my TBR and putting it off. When you meet an author and they talk about their novels with passion and love and all the hard work they put into it you want to love it. Sometimes it makes me put off reading it. I don’t want to not love it and that makes me anxious so I postpone reading it forever.
I should have read it on the train home from Edinburgh the moment I bought it.
If I had done what I should have and read the bloody book before YALC, I could have hugged her and thanked her for writing one of my favourite fantasy series I have ever read.
This magical adventure through high society, circuses, magician’s shows and a land like no other, Lam leads you through the turbulent life of Micah Grey, formerly known as Miss Iphigenia Laurus. A coming of age story which explores gender, sexuality, and growing up in a way no other Young Adult novel could.
From start to finish, I was gripped to the story and Lam’s writing style made it easy to get sucked into Micah’s world. Expect to experience love, loss and everything inbetween in this thrilling trilogy.
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