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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This was the most fucked up book I have ever read. I loved it.
im not going to be able to read another book for awhile, I fear.
this is one of those books that makes everything else feel dull in comparison. it was grotesque and disturbing, but so so tender. its a story of the most unconditional familial love, which we get to watch develop and break. I was holding my breath the whole time. I would do anything for oly binewski.
this is one of those books that makes everything else feel dull in comparison. it was grotesque and disturbing, but so so tender. its a story of the most unconditional familial love, which we get to watch develop and break. I was holding my breath the whole time. I would do anything for oly binewski.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Rape, Medical content, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What the actual fuck did I just read?
This book is not for the faint of heart. Everytime I thought the book was fucked up it somehow got worse. It's a neverending horror show. But it's written BRILLIANTLY and you have to admire the author's inventive imagination and audacity. One of the blurbs called this book unrelenting and I feel like that is apt. Check your trigger warnings because this book starts off the rails and only flings itself further from civilization the longer it goes on.
There's not much you can say without spoiling it. But I would wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone who can stomach it. I refused to read it at night for fear of what it would do to my dreams.
This book is not for the faint of heart. Everytime I thought the book was fucked up it somehow got worse. It's a neverending horror show. But it's written BRILLIANTLY and you have to admire the author's inventive imagination and audacity. One of the blurbs called this book unrelenting and I feel like that is apt. Check your trigger warnings because this book starts off the rails and only flings itself further from civilization the longer it goes on.
There's not much you can say without spoiling it. But I would wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone who can stomach it. I refused to read it at night for fear of what it would do to my dreams.
dark
slow-paced
I don’t really even know how to review this book - its definitely different than anything I’ve ever read before. I didn’t love it. I didn’t hate it. It was weird and wild and sometimes I had to reread a page or two to make sense of what was actually happening. Do I recommend it? Maybe…?!
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
First off, don't read this book when you're expecting a new baby. I did and it was unsettling. Katherine Dunn's Geek Love is dark, funny, bizarre and gnarled. The Binewskis are a family who run a traveling carnival. In order to better keep the business under control, especially when it comes to sideshows and freaks, Al and Lilian, decide to start experimenting with their own pregnancies. The fruit of their experimentation, which requires subjecting Lil to an array of drugs and chemicals, is a mausoleum of still-born, deformed babies, and their living children: Arty, Elly and Iphy, Olly, and Chick.
Arty has stumpy flippers instead of arms and legs, is cunning and manipulative, and performs as Aqua Boy. Elly and Iphy are conjoined twins, with striking looks, who play music. Olly is a bald, albino, hunchback dwarf who worships Arty and uses her voice to announce shows. The last child, Chick, seems like a "norm," but really has telekinetic and empathetic powers. Shhhh, it's a secret outside the family.
The book switches between Olly as an adult, looking after her own daughter and aged mother, and Olly as a child, growing up in the carnival. At times, the carnival sections seemed to go on too long or wander in their narrative, but that's mostly due to the addition of a character who is a journalist.
In terms of bizarre, I'm reminded of Gould's Book of Fish. Geek Love creates a world of possibility. It tears at the edges of the "norm" world and examines people's needs and cravings. As Arty ages from young boy to teen, he begins to take over the carnival. He manipulates his parents and siblings. He goes from carnival master to cult leader, transforming a need for entertainment into a need for belonging. Arty's message is that one can find more spiritually and in life by losing parts of their body. His followers begin to have parts of their body amputated in order to be like Arty and experience more.
I told you it was bizarre, right? Luckily, Olly is the heart of the book. We see her love for Arty and it humanizes him at times. We also see her disdain for norms and it causes the reader to pause, as it is also a disdain for most of those who read the book.
For writers, Katherine Dunn, teaches that there are no taboos. It's liberating to read. She creates a world filled with despicable characters making egregious decisions and draws the reader in. Some people may be turned off within a few pages of reading Geek Love, but for others there is an intriguing story there.
We witness a mother love her daughter from afar. We see that mother cross moral lines to protect her daughter. We also see how a family can rip itself apart, turn on children and exploit them. Innocence is lost. And in losing innocence, there is a desire to protect the innocence in others. Unique, gritty, and uncomfortable, Geek Love will take you somewhere you've never been.
Arty has stumpy flippers instead of arms and legs, is cunning and manipulative, and performs as Aqua Boy. Elly and Iphy are conjoined twins, with striking looks, who play music. Olly is a bald, albino, hunchback dwarf who worships Arty and uses her voice to announce shows. The last child, Chick, seems like a "norm," but really has telekinetic and empathetic powers. Shhhh, it's a secret outside the family.
The book switches between Olly as an adult, looking after her own daughter and aged mother, and Olly as a child, growing up in the carnival. At times, the carnival sections seemed to go on too long or wander in their narrative, but that's mostly due to the addition of a character who is a journalist.
In terms of bizarre, I'm reminded of Gould's Book of Fish. Geek Love creates a world of possibility. It tears at the edges of the "norm" world and examines people's needs and cravings. As Arty ages from young boy to teen, he begins to take over the carnival. He manipulates his parents and siblings. He goes from carnival master to cult leader, transforming a need for entertainment into a need for belonging. Arty's message is that one can find more spiritually and in life by losing parts of their body. His followers begin to have parts of their body amputated in order to be like Arty and experience more.
I told you it was bizarre, right? Luckily, Olly is the heart of the book. We see her love for Arty and it humanizes him at times. We also see her disdain for norms and it causes the reader to pause, as it is also a disdain for most of those who read the book.
For writers, Katherine Dunn, teaches that there are no taboos. It's liberating to read. She creates a world filled with despicable characters making egregious decisions and draws the reader in. Some people may be turned off within a few pages of reading Geek Love, but for others there is an intriguing story there.
We witness a mother love her daughter from afar. We see that mother cross moral lines to protect her daughter. We also see how a family can rip itself apart, turn on children and exploit them. Innocence is lost. And in losing innocence, there is a desire to protect the innocence in others. Unique, gritty, and uncomfortable, Geek Love will take you somewhere you've never been.
Well that was something. A story of a rather unusual family. Mom and dad want their children to have the gift of being able to provide for themselves so they start experimenting with hard drugs, insecticides, and radioactive material during pregnancy. This produces such abominations as the narrator — a bald albino hunchback dwarf who looks and moves like a toad. She occasionally feels inferior to her siblings for her relatively normal appearance, when asked she tells people almost apologetically “My father and mother designed me this way. They achieved greater originality in some of their other projects.”
Those other projects include her sisters the twins (Siamese naturally), who in turn will experience the miracle of giving birth when they spawn baby Mumpo, 26 pounds 5 ounces. There’s Arturo, the Aquaboy, who has flippers in place of limbs and starts a cult where people pay to have their limbs amputated. And Fortunato. You can imagine his mother’s horror and shame when he was born healthy and apparently normal. They decide to leave him at a gas station but he demonstrates his gift of telekinesis just in time to make him a keeper. There is also the “jar kin”, a menagerie of monsters who sadly died during childbirth or in infancy and are now kept for display and posterity in jars.
This book would make Jeffrey Dahmer’s skin crawl. I found myself laughing more than a few times, I hope that was intended or else there might be something wrong with me. I found it hard to put down for a while but I’d had plenty by the end, I’m happy to check out of that world. I won’t forget it any time soon though.
Those other projects include her sisters the twins (Siamese naturally), who in turn will experience the miracle of giving birth when they spawn baby Mumpo, 26 pounds 5 ounces. There’s Arturo, the Aquaboy, who has flippers in place of limbs and starts a cult where people pay to have their limbs amputated. And Fortunato. You can imagine his mother’s horror and shame when he was born healthy and apparently normal. They decide to leave him at a gas station but he demonstrates his gift of telekinesis just in time to make him a keeper. There is also the “jar kin”, a menagerie of monsters who sadly died during childbirth or in infancy and are now kept for display and posterity in jars.
This book would make Jeffrey Dahmer’s skin crawl. I found myself laughing more than a few times, I hope that was intended or else there might be something wrong with me. I found it hard to put down for a while but I’d had plenty by the end, I’m happy to check out of that world. I won’t forget it any time soon though.