It seems like life hasn’t dealt a great hand to Lizzie Borden. Childhood can be tough when your mum works at the only strip joint in town and you don’t even know who your father is. Luckily, Lizzie has inherited her mum’s tough streak, and makes her way to adulthood as well as she can. Things don’t get any easier – her mum’s sudden death leaves Lizzie in need of a job to make ends meet, and the strip club is the obvious choice. Starting out waiting tables, she soon follows her mother’s footsteps onto the stage and discovers a talent for acrobatic pole-dancing that goes far beyond the simply erotic.

Having lived her whole life with her mum as her only known relation, the arrival of a travelling circus in town brings a series of revelations for Lizzie. She has a whole extended family she never knew about, a family who inhabit a shadowy and magical world that is far outside of anything she ever imagined. In Lizzie’s life though, nothing is ever easy – her new family are menaced by sinister, powerful forces, seeking to tear her away from the protection of relatives she never knew she needed. Could understanding the mysteries of her past be the key to overcoming the dangers lurking in the present?

I really enjoyed this unusual novel, which successfully employs a rough and gritty style to blend the trials of everyday life with those of the magical world and deliver a compelling story that is all about family, roots, and staying true to who you are.