Water for Elephants

I did very much enjoy this story even if all the animal abuse made me cringe and want to put down the book in the middle. However this is a circus book so I can't really hold that against it, it was a pretty realistic depiction in places.

I liked the main character Jacob and I enjoyed how the narrative switched between his present life in a nursing home and his flashbacks to his time spent at the Benzini Brothers Circus. Honestly, I don't think I would have enjoyed this book nearly as much if it was just a straightforward tale of his time in the circus.

As others have commented Marlena is a bit flat of a character and I wish she had a little more going on, but then again since the story really wasn't about her I'm not sure what could have been added to make her more interesting.