Set in nineteenth century Russia, FEDOR is a fictionalized autobiography that follows its namesake, Fedor Adrianovitch Jefticheff, through his unusual life. Fedor has hypertrichosis, a condition that causes thick hair to grow all over the body. Billed as little more than a wild animal in the traveling circus where he works, his life beyond the tent isn’t much better. But years of ridicule, abuse from his alcoholic father, and poor living standards suddenly end thanks to a brief meeting with the Russian royal family. Impressed with his knowledge of Tolstoy, they become his patrons and protectors.

This sets in motion a fantastical life, much of it spent working all over the world in the heyday of Barnum and Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth where he was known as Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy. The bulk of the story revolves around circus-life drama and the famous figures who, rather inexplicably, make pilgrimages to meet Fedor. While the notion that notables like Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Herman Melville modestly request his friendship, gift him books for years, and seek his input on their work is hard to swallow, it gives Fedor a baffling, Forrest-Gumpian air. Yet, for all the events Fedor sees and the associations he cultivates, he is more armchair philosopher than participant in the life around him. This narrative distance combined with major events happening off-page may contribute to the novel’s unmoored sense of time. Though we know Fedor grows up, it is unclear how time passes without good pacing or the elements of traditional narrative structure to mark it.

While well copy edited, the prose often confuses narrative voice for character voice causing stilted or unnatural dialogue. Characterization also falls short for the rest of the cast. For all the fascinating individuals in the circus, they lack dimensionality. Even Fedor’s two (puzzling and abrupt) love interests are more like pretty adornments, sighing over his illustrious presence and tagging along to greet his famous friends, than actual women. Like many YA-type novels, FEDOR is squarely centered on its protagonist to the exclusion of almost all else. The narrative never strays further than a few feet beyond Fedor, which makes for a missed opportunity to explore the vibrant, unique environment of the Greatest Show On Earth and its performers from the inside. Nonetheless, FEDOR’s premise is compelling enough to pull one in, even if it falls short of its premise.

FEDOR has all the building blocks for a unique historical YA novel of the traveling-circus heydey, but proves more compelling in theory than in execution due to a dearth of narrative action and breadth.

~Remy Poore for IndieReader