Home of the American Circus is a love story about a chosen family. When Freya cannot afford her rent due to a medical emergency, she is forced to move to her hometown and into her childhood home. Somers is home to the American Circus; it is where the first circus elephant was born. When Freya returns to Somers, she finds her niece, Aubrey, hiding in the childhood home she shared with her parents after they kicked her out. The story takes place over a year and a half, measuring time in seasons. The first half was a little slow and hard to get into, but the second half of the story was faster paced. Freya is a grey protagonist. She is dealing with her trauma while making questionable decisions about raising her niece, paying her bills, and balancing multiple relationships, but her heart is in the right place. It took me a while to warm up to Freya, but her friends in the community won me over. I recommend this novel to people who enjoy literary fiction, family dramas, and character-driven stories. 4/5 Stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for this digital arc in exchange for my unbiased review.

This book was one that will stick with me for a while. Allison Larkin writes beautiful stories with characters you can’t help but root for. The People We Keep is one of my favorite books and this one is just as good as her last.

HOME OF THE AMERICAN CIRCUS is one of my top reads of the year so far. I loved the story — and a family drama/character-driven novel isn’t always my fave. But when it hits, it hits. And oh how this hit.

Freya has been living paycheck to paycheck as a bartender in Maine when a series of unfortunate events leads her back to the suburban New York hometown she fled from. It also leads her back to her best friend and niece — two people she loves but left. She’s repairing both those relationships as well as her childhood home and figuring out a future for herself.

The emotional rollercoaster this book was!!! Even in the good times I was so stressed because I knew the other shoe was gonna drop. I want this to be a movie so badly.

Thank you Gallery for the gifted physical and digital copies and Simon Audio for the gifted audio!

Home of the American Circus
Allison Larkin
Publishing Date: May 6, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Narrator: Julia Whelan 🎧

Let me start off by saying, this book takes place in the town that I live!!! I could not believe it when I read the blurb, and was beyond thrilled when Gallery sent me an advanced copy.

🐘 Small Town
🐘 Found Family
🐘 Family Drama
🐘 Character Growth
🐘 Generational Trauma
🐘 Second Chances

Allison Larkin’s writing is stunning. Her characters are well developed and relatable. They are flawed and complex. The emotions feel real and raw. She immerses you into her hometown and the atmosphere is beautifully set. She throws in little interludes with historical facts about the town and its connection to the circus, which are haunting and help set the tone in such a unique way.

Sorry Bet..

This book is a character study that takes a look at generational trauma, the way it can break a person, the choices made in order to survive, and what (or who) it takes to put the pieces back together and find your way home.

These characters will grab your heart and won’t let go. The amount of empathy invoked through Larkin’s writing is commendable. This is my first book of hers and most certainly won’t be my last.

This was Mays selection for @thebookedandthebookclub and we got to have a small intimate zoom with the author! It was SO FUN! I will also be joining the zoom with @lbtheloverofbooks on Sunday! Allie is absolutely lovely. Down to earth, open and honest, you feel like you’re talking to a friend. I’ll be here hoping she comes back to the Somers area so I can say hi in person!

🎧 Julia Whelan is nothing short of perfection every single time. The moment I saw she was narrating this I knew I would have to tandem read with my eyes and ears. Zero regrets. Both formats are wonderful. Fun fact: her and Allie are friends, which I just love 🥰

My primary struggle with this novel was its pacing. The plot felt consistently slow-moving, and I found myself waiting for a significant development or a compelling turn of events that, unfortunately, never truly materialized. What was the point of the elephant?! We may never know.

I LOVED Allison Larkin's last book The People we Keep so I was ready to love this book too. Home of the American Circus tells the story of Freya who goes home again and finds herself caring for those around her but especially for her niece. For me this book was a bit of a slow burn but maybe that's just that I was in the mood for more plot. Still it's very well written and I came to care about the characters. All in all a good 4 star read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was like being cut and healed on every other page. I five star loved it, and love even more when that happens with a book I know nothing about and picked based on the title. Thanks to Netgalley for the free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

4.5 rounded up.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eArc -- Allison is an Auto-Buy author for me!

This book feels like a warm hug followed by a beer spilled on your shirt by friends, delivered by a small town filled with rumors.

There are tough subjects and trigger warnings in here for sure, but in a digestible way that make you feel empathy, sorrow, and love. So much of this book felt authentic to those individuals who are "stuck" in life. My only gripe is that it also involves a teen girl who has generational and personal trauma and not once is therapy brought up as an option for her. When you have a book that feels so real in parts, I would have liked to see that aspect of her "getting professional help". But the bottom line is I still appreciated so much about the storyline, especially the real lore around an infamous elephant known to the town of Somers.

I will read anything by this author. She’s a gem of a human and her writing only solidifies that!

Larkin is a skilled storyteller. It took me a bit to get into this story, but after about the first 25% I was sunk into this book. I'm a sucker for a found family and appreciated how that trope was utilized in this book. Part of the story dragged a bit for me, but overall I thought this was an enjoyable read.

** I received an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was just perfection. I loved to see the growth in Freya and how she came out of her shell. How she stayed for her niece and the others who grew to depend on her. Even mending some old relationships and letting go of those that can’t be. I think this is Ms. Larkin’s best yet.

I liked her last book a lot, but I read about 10-15% of this and everyone was just too much of a mess. It's hard for me to connect to characters when their lives are in complete shambles and it seems like they have nothing going for them. I've heard good things, and maybe I should've kept going but I just wasn't in the mood for "adult who needs to grow up and get their act together".

This book was one that was hard to put down. The characters were relatable and you just wanted to see things work out for them.

This one truly is a beautiful, emotional, coming-of-age story, focusing on family and relationship dynamics. If that's the type of story you love, than I highly recommend this one! Very well-written and the characters feel very real.

Short synopsis: Freya moves back to the hometown she left behind after she inherits her parents home. She reconnects with her former life, but more importantly withher niece Aubrey.

My thoughts: This book was so beautifully told. While it’s a very character driven book I felt like I was right there with Freya and Aubrey as they walked through their present and past journeys.

There are some really heavy themes discussed that will have your heart aching for the characters. I loved the exploration of found family in the pages, it really brought a sense of hopefulness to situations that otherwise be hopeless.

I did a mix of audio and physical reading, but would highly recommend the audio version. Julia Whalen narrated the characters perfectly really amplifying their voices, and bringing them to life.

Read if you love:
- Found Family
- Character driven stories
- Aunt/Niece relationships
- Flashbacks

@simon.audio @gallerybooks | #partner Yay! Allison Larkin has delivered another winner with her sophomore novel, 𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗖𝗜𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦. Like her debut, this book is about found family, but in this case a different sort of found family. As a young adult, Freya Arnalds left her hometown of Somers, New York, feeling she had no other options. Life there was simply too punishing. She kept in touch with no one, essentially vanishing. More than 10 years later, Freya, in a state of desperation, returns to her dilapidated childhood home recently inherited from her parents.⁣
⁣
As the story develops, Larkin introduces the people it tore Freya up to leave long ago, those she was fleeing from, and others in Somers new to Freya’s life. The family she cobbles together is a mix of both old and new. We also come to understand why she felt powerless to do anything but leave and just as importantly, the people she hurt most when she made that choice.⁣
⁣
I really enjoyed this story for its many beautiful human connections, most especially that between Freya and her niece. I have to be realistic and say that there were a few elements that felt a little too good to be true, but sometimes that’s easy to overlook, as was the case in this book. I listened to the audiobook, and as always appreciated Juilia Whelan’s narration. I think she enables me to forgive minor flaws more easily than I might in print.⁣
⁣
It’s worth noting that Somers, NY is Larkin’s hometown and her decision to write a book taking place there was not an easy one. Though the story is not based on any people from that town, in her author’s notes Larkins does share some beautiful words of tribute to the place she grew up. Be sure not to miss them! Somehow the fact that the story took place in her hometown made me like 𝘏𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘊𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘶𝘴 even more. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Beautifully written, tragic yet hopeful. Such powerful prose and style of writing. Will read anything she writes!

🎪 Home of the American Circus - Allison Larkin

4 ⭐️- I enjoyed this one but I oddly feel like it won’t be for everyone. Larkin’s first book took place in Ithaca and holds a very dear piece of my heart so I was SO excited to see she had a second coming out. Which takes place in Somers, where I’ve been to because of my friends from Ithaca. With this weird cycle of connections, I feel very drawn to Larkin’s writing and books. It is easy for me to connect with them.

After an emergency, 30 year old Freya Arnalds leaves her lackluster life in Maine and moves back to her hometown of Somers, NY to live in a house she inherited from her estranged parents. Freya dreamed of laying low, but unfortunately that doesn’t happen. She runs into childhood friends, enemies, old rivals, and her 15 year old niece Aubrey. As Freya and Aubrey reconnect, they lean on each other to restore the old house and their relationship due to events of their past.

This is a slow burn exposing generational wounds and trauma. If you like family trauma stories, this might be for you! I loved Aubrey the most, but I genuinely enjoyed the journey of grief, self loathing, and self love that each of our characters goes through. The plot itself is a bit slow, but this is a more character driven story purposely written to travel the real life roads of experiences and emotions of our characters. I definitely recommend the audio; queen Julia Whelan reads to us! I already can’t wait to see what Larkin does next!

After loving this author’s previous novel, I had high hopes for this one, but it just didn’t land for me. The story follows Freya, a thirty-year-old who returns to her hometown after a personal crisis, only to discover her teenage niece secretly living in the house she inherited. As they slowly reconnect, the two work through layers of family history and pain.

While the premise had so much potential, with themes of reconciliation, homecoming, and healing, I never quite felt connected to the characters, and some parts dragged for me. That said, I can absolutely see why others are loving it. This just wasn’t the right book at the right time for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my review copy.

Thirty year old Freya returns to her hometown and the house she inherited from her parents to find her teenage niece Aubrey has secretly been living there. I love the relationship between Freya and Aubrey. I love seeing the ways Freya figures out how to rebuild her life and deal with her past. Thank you to the publisher for the gifted ebook - would also absolutely recommend on audio.

The People We Keep was one of my favorite books of 2021 and I have been anxiously awaiting Allison’s next book. Allison shines in these coming of age, character driven stories, family focused stories. Freya is 30 and leaves her job as a bartender in Maine to go back to her hometown in Somers, NY to live in the house she inherited from her estranged parents. During her time there, she reconnects with her niece Audrey, her childhood best friend, and others around this small town.

This is a story of redemption, going back home, and found family. There are a lot of tough topics covered in here but I was so invested in rooting for Freya and her happiness and just hoping she would hit a run of good luck. Just about everyone you meet in this story is heavily flawed but by the end you feel so connected to all the characters and their happiness - and this would be very tough to pull off for some authors but Allison nailed it. The story is emotional, heartwarming, and shows the power of connection.