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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
There's a ton to love about this book. Personally, the most compelling aspect of this novel was it's ability to put me in the mind of someone being abused and understand the logic that makes the abuse seem like love. That's not something I've been able to comprehend before, but Katherine Dunn captures the relationship spectacularly.
Geek Love is an ode to the carnival, to the freaks and geeks, to society's outcasts. There are siamese twins, an albino hunchbacked dwarf, a flipper-ed showman, and a telekinetic boy looking for acceptance. The world Dunn creates is believable and captures your imagination. She doesn't spend too long explaining these carnival shows work or which bits are fake and which bits are real. She leaves it all up to the reader. And, really the carnival serves as a back drop for the more poignant commentary on what society sees as normal, what we'll do for acceptance, how family shapes our understanding of normal, and how everyone (regardless of outward appearance) experiences the same emotions and familiar insecurities.
There's a lot to read here and I don't think I've caught it all on a first read through.
If I have one complaint, the ending felt slightly rushed. I think Dunn could've used another 20 pages to really build up to the final moments, but in some ways that could be her point. The end doesn't always seem expected sometimes it happens on a day like any other.
An outstanding novel that I'll be revisiting in the future.
Geek Love is an ode to the carnival, to the freaks and geeks, to society's outcasts. There are siamese twins, an albino hunchbacked dwarf, a flipper-ed showman, and a telekinetic boy looking for acceptance. The world Dunn creates is believable and captures your imagination. She doesn't spend too long explaining these carnival shows work or which bits are fake and which bits are real. She leaves it all up to the reader. And, really the carnival serves as a back drop for the more poignant commentary on what society sees as normal, what we'll do for acceptance, how family shapes our understanding of normal, and how everyone (regardless of outward appearance) experiences the same emotions and familiar insecurities.
There's a lot to read here and I don't think I've caught it all on a first read through.
If I have one complaint, the ending felt slightly rushed. I think Dunn could've used another 20 pages to really build up to the final moments, but in some ways that could be her point. The end doesn't always seem expected sometimes it happens on a day like any other.
An outstanding novel that I'll be revisiting in the future.
challenging
dark
emotional
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:
Yes
Beautifully grotesque. To say anything more about this book would be a disservice to the experience of going in blind.
I found it deeply unsettling that the parents purposefully took actions to alter their children while pregnant. I couldn’t get past that.
DNF @ 50% - very dark, which is absolutely for some! I felt stuck in the slog of the heaviness of the story and it felt like there was little joy or motivation or hope for redemption that made me put it down
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Wow. Loved every twisted word. A dark comedic fever dream about a charming family of freaks just trying to find purpose and not murder each other.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is not about nerds in love, and contains the most bizarre and beautiful story I've ever read.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Jesus.
It has been a long time since I have read something this good. It was really long, but I didn't want it to end.
Katherine Dunn must have some kind of imagination to come up with something like this, and bring it to life so vividly. She never made any really "easy" decisions, and didn't resort to cop-out tropes like you might expect from a book about a tightly knit family of circus freaks.
Katherine Dunn must have some kind of imagination to come up with something like this, and bring it to life so vividly. She never made any really "easy" decisions, and didn't resort to cop-out tropes like you might expect from a book about a tightly knit family of circus freaks.
This is a crazy book told by the daughter of the owner of a traveling carnival. Fed up by the demands of the fat lady, he decides to breed his own freaks by exposing his (willing) wife to a variety of drugs and radiation during pregnancy. It's very out there and immoral, but it works well and I enjoyed it.