The Game of Oaths

A teenage circus performer enters a deadly competition seeking freedom and revenge in Bandreddi’s ruthless debut, set in 19th-century Paris. Falan Sunkara, a trapeze artist from Yanaon, India, who is bound by a magical contract to the sinister le Cirque des Ombres, has spent the past year contemplating vengeance. Her closest friend, Lavanya, was killed in the Game of Oaths, a tournament engineered by the circus’s calculating ringmaster, Jean-Pierre, who Falan is certain orchestrated her death. Aligning herself with others who have been disenfranchised by the Parisian elite and the reach of French imperialism, she navigates shifting alliances, moral compromise, and lethal spectacle. Falan proves a deliciously cutthroat heroine, unwavering in her ambition yet rendered with empathy-drawing vulnerability. While a crowded cast and lengthy exposition occasionally hamper narrative immersion, sharp twists restore momentum, culminating in a heart-pounding tournament finale. This intricately built and darkly sumptuous story of vengeance and liberation will appeal to fans of Roshani Chokshi’s The Gilded Wolves. Ages 14–up. Agent: Catherine Cho, Paper Literary. (June)