Book Tour & Review: Sideshow by Amy Stilgenbauer

Author:  Amy Stilgenbauer

Title: Sideshow

Release Date: August 25, 2016

Length: 61,000 words

Categories: Fiction, Historical, Lesbian Romance, Romance

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29557163-sideshow

Publisher: Interlude Press

Cover Artist: C.B. Messer

Abby Amaro wants to sing at La Scala Opera House, but she’s a good girl, and in 1957 good girls get married. Still, when she receives her first marriage proposal, she freezes, knowing the way her suitor makes her feel bodes trouble. When he won’t take no for an answer, she flees, joining up with a traveling carnival.

Thanks to a burlesque trapeze artist and the world’s saddest clown, Abby bides her time and fits in until she can rejoin the world she knows. She doesn’t expect a sideshow strongwoman named Suprema, who captures her imagination. As the carnival makes its way across the Midwest, Abby learns much more than she had ever imagined—about herself, about her identity, and, most importantly, about love.

This book had me at 1950s, Italian family, opera, and the Midwest. I had high hopes when I began reading, and not only did the story meet my expectations, it exceeded them. What a well-written, sweet, poignant story.

Everything about this is pitch-perfect, from the small details of the setting to the depth of the characters. Abby had me in her corner right from the start. Although the picture of her life is hardly idyllic, she’s not one to be pitied, either. There’s always the sense that she has more than one path to the happiness her Nonna desires for her. But her circumstances propel her toward the traveling carnival, and that’s where the real fun begins.

This is not really a romance as much as it is a story about family, friendship, and self-discovery.  Yes, there’s a love connection between Abby and one of the performers. However, it isn’t the sole focus of the novel. There is just as much time devoted to the other relationships Abby develops with the people in the carnival.

With regard to the romance, all of the intimacy is off-page/fade-to-black. While I wouldn’t have necessarily objected to more detail, I think it works better without. We do, however, begin to see the subtle changes in Abby as the relationship progresses, which in this case I think is preferable.

There are too many wonderful characters to name them all and say what I liked about them. Each one enriches the story, and without them it wouldn’t be complete. They are part of the world Abby is swept up in. Because it isn’t a physical place, we need to see it by way of the human element. Abby’s observations and interactions with the other performers give us a window into their world. By the end of the story, I had grown to love them all the way Abby obviously does.

I did find the resolution to Abby’s arc with her ex, Frank, to be a bit abrupt. However, I think that the final confrontation between them and how it plays out are not accidental. Virtually nothing in the story is simply thrown in, and I think it’s written that way for a reason. I don’t want to give spoilers, but I do think it’s important for readers to see it as almost a metaphor for Abby’s internal changes. It’s not a cop-out or a lack of sufficient action.

This is a wonderful piece of literature, providing an intimate glimpse into a bygone era and multiple cultural experiences. I thoroughly enjoyed taking Abby’s journey with her.

For perfect attention to detail, characters who are easy to love, and sweet nostalgia, this gets 10/10 fountain pens.

Interlude Press http://store.interludepress.com/collections/sideshow

Amazon  http://amzn.to/2b43njS

Barnes and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sideshow-amy-stilgenbauer/1124079234?ean=9781945053016

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/648885

All Romance eBooks https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-sideshow-2058755-367.html?referrer=55feb862851f8

Indiebound http://www.indiebound.org/book/978-1-945053-01-6&aff=interludepress

Abby couldn’t remember falling asleep. She only remembered the dark night and how, outside the window of Della’s trailer, the rolling slopes of Eastern Ohio slowly flattened into the farmland of the western side of the state and faded into darkness. She didn’t say much during the trip, but her mind was spinning, unable to process what she had done.

Once, when she had been a little girl, barely older than Annette was now, her mother had taken her and Natale to visit their aunt in Chicago for a week. It had been a nice visit. They had embarked on the train with a great deal of ceremony, and Za Teresa had spoiled the pair rotten, loading them up with peach-shaped marzipan and pizzelle until they were both sick. She hadn’t left Cleveland for any extended period of time since. Oh, sure, she’d talked and dreamt about it. Nonna often wistfully mentioned taking a trip back to her girlhood home one more time now that the war was over and taking Abby along to look after her, and then, if her opera career took off as she had once hoped, she would be visiting all the great cities. In her scrapbook, clippings of Palais Garnier, La Scala, and The Met were decorated with carefully drawn hearts and hopeful stars and the scrawled word: someday. Still, she had never imagined that when she departed the Coventry neighborhood again, it would be in a burlesque dancer’s trailer.

Amy Stilgenbauer is a writer and aspiring archivist currently based in southeast Michigan. She is the author of the novelette series, Season of the Witch, as well as the Young Adult novel, The Legend of League Park. Her short story, The Fire-Eater’s Daughter, was included in Summer Love, an LGBTQ Young Adult collection published by Duet, an imprint of Interlude Press. When she isn’t writing, Amy enjoys all things bergamot and tries to keep her cats away from her knitting.

Webpage: amystilgenbauer.wordpress.com

Tumblr: amystilgenbauer.tumblr.com

Facebook Author Page: www.facebook.com/amystilgenbauerwrites

Twitter: https://twitter.com/amystilgenbauer

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Amy, author of Sideshow. Hi, Amy, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.

Thank you for having me! I’m a hopeless romantic and history buff, which meant I really had to become a writer at some point. My obsession with learning “people’s stories” gave me a purpose in life and led me to some great places. Sideshow is no exception. This novel is the story of a young woman growing up in 1950s Cleveland and the turn her life takes when she runs away with a traveling carnival.

Was there a basis for you story? A previous experience or something else?

Sideshow was inspired by a lot of different things. When I decided that I wanted to continue with the world of “The Fire-Eater’s Daughter,” I wasn’t sure that I wanted to write a full length novel about Ruth or Constance (yet), so I went back to an old flash fiction piece about a young opera singer who falls in love at a carnival. Of course it needed fleshing out and the characters needed more life, so I drew from the historical research I did for “The Fire-Eater’s Daughter”, as well as the experiences that my grandmother, great-aunts, and cousins had growing up in the 1950s and 60s to help weave it all together.

What skills do you think a writer needs?

Just one: perseverance! Anything else is a cherry on top. You can be a creative genius, but if you don’t have the fortitude to force yourself into a chair and write down the glorious gleaming story in your head, no one is ever going to get the chance to read it. You have to do it. Day after day. No matter how many times you are rejected. No matter how many times people (or your own jerk brain)  tell you that it’s a pipe dream. You simply have to keep doing it. Craft is great and important, but craft will come. Just persevere and keep writing no matter what.

What for you is the perfect book hero?

I am a sucker for a shy, awkward girl who doesn’t like conflict and is afraid of things finally breaking out of her shell when it’s needed most. Not going to lie though, that’s because I am a shy, awkward girl who doesn’t like conflict and is afraid of things and I like to think that one day I’ll break out of my shell when it’s needed most.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

Planning. I’ve gotten better with practice, but I was once quite the “pantser” as I’ve heard it called. I have a hard time outlining and an even harder time sticking to that outline. My characters sometimes seem to change their plans on me at a moment’s notice. It makes the process take longer than I would like, so I hope to someday get it down to a better system.

Tell us about your favorite childhood book.

One of my favorite books as a kid was Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. I owe that particular book a lot. I probably wouldn’t have been a writer without Harriet inspiring me to keep a “notebook” of my observations. Mine were never anywhere quite as seering as hers, but my bullies took just as much joy in stealing the notebook from me to read it aloud as Harriet’s did. Also, Harriet and I both loved tomato sandwiches. We had a lot in common. She made me feel a little less alone.

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