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I had to write Torn Pages Orpheus from the couple's perspective as I think the most interesting character of your story should never be the main character, this is how you avoid writing a Mary Sue. You should have your main character be the most boring character, and have them detest the main character and all the chaos and tragedy the main character -- who is burdened with destiny -- brings upon them. Occasionally, this can bring me problems like with the original Torn Pages and its issue of David's bland character. However, I think it's better to have a boring main character than an unlikeable main character. In the case of Tom, I don't think he's boring -- his surname is Manson, for god's sake. He is a young buck who would have been a hero in a F. Scott Fitzgerald novel or, even worse, an F. Scott Fitzgerald rip-off novel; the author who provides intros for each chapter is a failed F.Scott, someone who would never reach the heights of the greats. Tom would have been a boring character, but he wanders into the Freakshow tent and finds himself in Alice Collins' book.
The main concept of Alice being in the Freakshow was inspired by the opening act of the Hollywood Vampires concert: The Tubes, and their wonderful song, "She's a Beauty". I'd never heard that song before in my life, and its freakshow carnival depiction of seeing a pretty girl for the first time, and so it captured my imagination with its weirdness. A great way to begin a book, having Alice ranting in that cage about modern stuff and considered a freak by the twenties Americans as a result. What if there were trees around the carnival that came alive? There you are, I had a story.