Rating: 
Summary: a moving story
Review: This was a wonderful book. I did not really like Anne Ursu's first book, Spilling Clarence- but I did think she has a wonderful writing style. Here, her lovely, almost dream-like sentences serve the story well, and her characters are all very realistically drawn.It's an unsettling story, with multiple points of view, and multiple realities. James, is a shy, quiet little boy, who is enthralled with the idea of seeing this magician. His parents and sister are delighted when James is brought to be on stage with the magician, and reveals an outgoing, cheerful side of himself. All is well until James really does disappear. We see this nightmare through the eyes of everyone involved. We feel the mother's and father's separate terrors and pains, we see the sister's valiant attempts to figure out how to find James, we feel useless along with the detective assigned to watch over the family, and we see the bewilderment of the magician, himself. Where did James go? Now, that in itself, could be a story unto itself, but Anne Ursu chooses instead to focus on the drama at home. The fact that she doesn't really explore what did happen to James is a bit of a disappointment, but the story she does tell is amazing by itself. It's a story full of very quiet terrors, humors, and the unsettling notion that life can not only change at any second, but we may not even realize it when it does. Her writing style may be a little disorienting at first, but I think that once you start reading in earnest, it would be hard to put this book down.
Rating: 
Summary: An unlikely premise that works
Review: What would you do if your child simply vanished? Not an abduction or an accident, they are as the novel simply states, "Poof", gone into thin air. This is the unliklely premise that the author successfully pulls off in this dreamlike, but realistically gripping novel. Five year old James accompanies his family to the circus; a birthday treat for his seven year old sister. James is withdrawn and developmentally slow, an issue that is weighing heavily on the minds of his parents. Much to their surprize their shy son eagerly volunteers to assist the clown with his stage routine; the finale of that act resulting in the disappearance of James much to the delight of the audience. However when James cannot be located after the show and a security tape is viewed, the world of his family comes crashing down around them. How James' strange disappearance effects his family and those connected to their lives (the clown from the circus and the police officer sent to assist them), is both gut-wrenching and uplifting. While the premise is unlikely the author pulls it off through flashbacks and "what if's". A thoroughly enjoyable story with much to ponder.
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