Freakslaw

By: Jane Flett

Narrated by: Abigail Lawrie

“A carnivalesque tale spun in luscious, crackling prose, Freakslaw is the glittery punk offspring of Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love and Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus. You know those books you want to roll around in, rub on your skin, and clasp to your heart? Freakslaw is one.” ―Chelsea G. Summers, author of A Certain Hunger

In this riotous horror debut, a traveling carnival of troublemakers arrive in a small Scottish town and perform their favorite pastime: revenge.

It is the summer of ‘97 and the repressed Scottish town of Pitlaw is itching for change. Enter the Freakslaw―a travelling carnival of deviant queers and architects of mayhem. There’s Gloria, fortune teller and worm charmer; her daughter Nancy, a contortionist witch; big-hearted tightrope walker, Werewolf Louie; not to mention illusionists and conjoined twins, Cass and Henry, and tattooed human pincushion, Pin Gal. Against Pitlaw’s miserably grey landscape, the carnival shines electric and bright, and it doesn’t take long for the town’s teenagers to be seduced by its neon charms and the possibility of escape.

But beneath it all, these newcomers are harboring a darker desire: revenge. Revenge for being cast out, never allowed to settle, punished for purely existing. And as tensions reach fever pitch between the stoic, unwelcoming locals and the dazzling intruders, a violence that has been bubbling for centuries is about to be unleashed . . .

Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love meets Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus in this sizzling debut by a writer as captivating as she is incisive, as wild as she is precise. Read this and try not to run away with the Freakslaw. Go on. We dare you.

Unhinged in the best possible way.

This book is unlike anything I’ve ever read. Absolutely wild and unique. Chaos magic indeed.

Fun but Frustrating

Is it because we are constantly jumping between the characters but I feel unable to connect with any of them? There is very little depth to any of them so consequently it is hard to care. Am I rooting for the Freaks or am I rooting for the town kids? All I know is I am not rooting for the drunks. I had to go to the Amazon 'sample read' to see a list of characters after I became frustrated with the audiobook which I think could do with a PDF of the character list.

Having found a list of characters helped, but not enough. There were too many minor characters that just muddied the plot. The book did pick up momentum and I was more engaged throughout the second part of the book. I enjoyed the story but really felt as if it needed a heavier hand editing. There were some extraneous minor characters whose stories were just an unnecessary tangent that detracted from the story.

WHERE IS THE HORROR?

i am over 4 hours into this ~10 hour book and there is zero horror so far. so almost halfway through and it’s just a story about the people in this town and the freaks (and a nasty oral sex scene where someone reeks of piss??? that’s the closest to horror so far!). DNF, wish I hadn’t wasted a credit.

it’s not a bad book if you enjoy general fiction but i bought it because it’s described as horror. but really it takes way too long to become horror if it ever does at all.