The Family Fortuna is the YA debut novel for Lindsay Eagar. It tells the story of Avita, the youngest member of The Family Fortuna which runs the circus of the same name. Avita is the star of the circus due to her rather feathered and monstrous status. Having been born with a beak and feathers she tends to incite some rather bloodcurdling screams in the circus tent. Then she meets Tomas, a young artist who appears to actually see her or at the very least appears to not be afraid of her. This meeting starts Avita questioning everything, her role in the circus and how the public views her the most though. After Tomas is hired to paint new banners for the circus Avita is horrified by the banner for her act depicting her as nothing more than a monster. Determined to change that she starts pushing back against her father, the ringmaster, and in doing so she discovers that perhaps she is not the only one of their family currently unhappy with their role in the circus.
This book was an interesting and compelling read as it dealt with the intricacies of circus life and of being viewed as different but also with the difficulties associated with family and growing up and finding your own place in life. The thing that really drew me in the most for this particular book is how much the story of Avita resonated with me. Trying to figure out who you are versus who everyone else perceives you to be is a vital part of growing up and can be one of the trickiest parts to navigate. I know I struggled with that part when I was younger so I can definitely relate to Avita deciding that she was not the monster everyone thought she was and wanting to do something about it. The interesting part was exactly how that was done by creating a parallel with this young woman who was born with feathers and beak. The characterization of Avita was incredible as well as she definitely had a lot of depth to her and we really got to know her over the course of the book. By the end I felt like she was familiar and was pretty happy to see how she changed and grew over the course of the book. On top of that the plot was also really nice as it was part the story of a family and their struggles but there was also the layer associated with the circus and how they were struggling but in a different way. Then there was the struggles of Avita and how that tied into the other struggles as well. It was very well done and ended up creating this great story that was an absolute delight to read. There were times it was a little depressing, specifically when it came to seeing how Avita was treated, but it was more than made up for by Avita’s genuine joy in life and her relationships with the people around her. I definitely enjoyed this book and am happy to give it four out of five stars.
This is a great example of a young adult fantasy novel so if you happen to be a young adult and happen to enjoy the fantasy genre than this book is a great one to consider. I would even think it might hold some appeal for adult readers who enjoy the fantasy genre as it did for me. However, I don’t think it would hold a lot of appeal for readers who don’t enjoy fantasy novels. There was surprisingly little readers should be concerned about for this novel as there was very little violence and few, if any, references to adult content. Overall, a great book and one that I hope you will consider trying. If you do feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.