Genevieve Valentine's debut novel imagines a post-apocalyptic world where Boss builds the Mechanical Circus Tresaulti from the broken bodies of those who join her, replacing flesh with brass and copper to create performers capable of impossible feats. The circus travels between ruined cities, offering wonder to survivors of an unnamed catastrophe while competing powers seek to capture Boss's technology for military purposes. Valentine's prose is lush and strange, creating an atmosphere of beauty and menace that matches her world of mechanical marvels and constant danger. The novel follows multiple characters within the circus, exploring the transformations, physical and psychological, that membership demands. Those who receive mechanical parts gain abilities but sacrifice something human; the bargain's terms differ for each performer. Valentine examines community, bodily autonomy, and what it means to belong to something larger than oneself. The circus functions as found family, offering belonging to those with nowhere else, while also demanding total loyalty. The narrative structure mirrors the circus's nature, fragmentary and mysterious, revealing its secrets gradually. The book won the Crawford Award for best debut fantasy novel and established Valentine as a distinctive voice in speculative fiction.