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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
I just finished this book today and I think it might be one of my favorites of all time already. Listened to the audiobook and the narrator, Christina Moore, was one of the best I've ever heard. Every character's voice was distinct and fit perfectly with their personality. I feel like I've been injected with a drug that makes me desire more stories about carnies and I will not be sated until this need is fulfilled. Where are all the carny stories!?!
I will be coming back to this book soon. I have to read this in print, now. 5 stars. 6 stars.
I will be coming back to this book soon. I have to read this in print, now. 5 stars. 6 stars.
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's been a long while since I've read this, but it was pretty defining to me leaving high school as someone who loved weird fiction. Extremely dark and of its time. Not something I'd recommend for the faint of heart.
A mad rip-roaring read living on the ethos “a true freak cannot be made. A true freak must be born.”
This book had so many phrases that I have never ever read before. The story revels in the ‘freak’ classification that falls on any creature/action/endeavor that forces the “norms” of the world to consider themselves and their positions.
The story veers from disturbing to endearing unceasingly and ends with a stillness that makes my skin crawl just a little!
Chapters like “Enter the Bag Man”, “Popcorn Pimp”, and “Flesh - Electric on Wheels” set the stage for the Binewski clan’s foray into a backwards eugenics that shapes the lives of each family member and the carnival that they collectively staff.
Statements like “Breathless shrieks pumped out of the murderer’s throat and vibrated through my teeth in adrenal heroics that lit my skull’s interior with an epileptic torch” and “she soars and stomps and burns through her life with no notion of the causes that formed her. She imagined herself isolated and unique. She is unaware that she is part of, and the product of, forces assembled before she was born” establish this as a book for folks who love raw stanzas as much as plot, and the story tells of love and yearning in unacceptable, revolting, and inadmissible ways that make you feel much more than making you think.
This book had so many phrases that I have never ever read before. The story revels in the ‘freak’ classification that falls on any creature/action/endeavor that forces the “norms” of the world to consider themselves and their positions.
The story veers from disturbing to endearing unceasingly and ends with a stillness that makes my skin crawl just a little!
Chapters like “Enter the Bag Man”, “Popcorn Pimp”, and “Flesh - Electric on Wheels” set the stage for the Binewski clan’s foray into a backwards eugenics that shapes the lives of each family member and the carnival that they collectively staff.
Statements like “Breathless shrieks pumped out of the murderer’s throat and vibrated through my teeth in adrenal heroics that lit my skull’s interior with an epileptic torch” and “she soars and stomps and burns through her life with no notion of the causes that formed her. She imagined herself isolated and unique. She is unaware that she is part of, and the product of, forces assembled before she was born” establish this as a book for folks who love raw stanzas as much as plot, and the story tells of love and yearning in unacceptable, revolting, and inadmissible ways that make you feel much more than making you think.
I kicked my reading New Year off by turning to a longtime favorite, Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. This is a book I’m pretty sure I discovered in the dusty upstairs of The Book Peddler, a used bookstore in downtown Eau Claire sometime in the 90s. I don’t know what happened to that copy. I distinctly remember buying it again from the Half-Price Books back in 2000. read more
I gave this 2 stars, said to myself, "i should give it one star." then i changed it to one star and thought, "i should give it two stars." whatever. it was not terrible writing with no discernible message or anything. it just was NOT my jam, even though I was so sure from reading the description that it WOULD BE my jam. Magical realism? Is that what this genre is? I'm not sure. but i typically go ape for that nonsense. I was deeply intrigued.
This book had a lot of acclaim, great reviews about how it was perverse and no holds barred. but honestly, i consider myself a complete freak and i was only a few pages in when i started wishing the author had barred just like one or two holds.
This book had a lot of acclaim, great reviews about how it was perverse and no holds barred. but honestly, i consider myself a complete freak and i was only a few pages in when i started wishing the author had barred just like one or two holds.
I'm giving this one star. While it was certainly vivid, imaginative, and intriguing, I can't say I enjoyed reading it or could recommend it to anyone. I'm also failing to find much meaning in it and have come to the conclusion it's so disturbing largely for effect. I'm going to read up about it though - maybe I'm missing something!
absolutely brilliant -- nature vs nurture gets an alarming twist in this haunting meditation on devotion and alienation --
i felt several things shake and turn in me as i read this obscene and moving tragicomedy about family values and the meaning of normalcy -- and i cannot recommend this book enough to anyone looking for a shocking, perverse and deliciously wicked read -- [a:Katherine Dunn|8622|Katherine Dunn|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1206025755p2/8622.jpg] is a mastermind, an unmatched genius and with Geek Love she has spun a gritty, ambivalent novel that will leave readers like after a death-defying ride, clamouring for more --
Dunn describes the mundane and the grotesque with equal dexterity (except perhaps the climax, which i really wish had extended to several paragraphs, if not pages), and it is as though one can hear the story being read out aloud as the pictures play before one's eyes. The characters loom larger than life, the sociopolitical satire misses no beat and everything is so incredibly vivid. The premise may not be unique but Dunn is an innovative writer. The richness of the story's fabric derives its character largely from Dunn's unique and inventive turns of phrases and even when she goes a little overboard everything is tied back together very nicely with the rest of the narrative style.
i felt several things shake and turn in me as i read this obscene and moving tragicomedy about family values and the meaning of normalcy -- and i cannot recommend this book enough to anyone looking for a shocking, perverse and deliciously wicked read -- [a:Katherine Dunn|8622|Katherine Dunn|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1206025755p2/8622.jpg] is a mastermind, an unmatched genius and with Geek Love she has spun a gritty, ambivalent novel that will leave readers like after a death-defying ride, clamouring for more --
Dunn describes the mundane and the grotesque with equal dexterity (except perhaps the climax, which i really wish had extended to several paragraphs, if not pages), and it is as though one can hear the story being read out aloud as the pictures play before one's eyes. The characters loom larger than life, the sociopolitical satire misses no beat and everything is so incredibly vivid. The premise may not be unique but Dunn is an innovative writer. The richness of the story's fabric derives its character largely from Dunn's unique and inventive turns of phrases and even when she goes a little overboard everything is tied back together very nicely with the rest of the narrative style.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
That was... something. There was a lot about this book I found beautiful, and it will definitely stick with me for a long time. The characters, character development, and overall themes I thought were both stunning and horrifying. However I think there were a lot of flaws in the execution, namely the pacing (spending an entire page or more describing a simple task or moment in time, while the climax of the story received only about one page), and the overuse of metaphor to the point that I was unsure at certain moments what was actually happening in the story and what was simply superfluous language.
Would definitely recommend to fans of literary fiction with a propensity for the darker, freakier sides of human nature.
Would definitely recommend to fans of literary fiction with a propensity for the darker, freakier sides of human nature.
I thought this was going to be about circus people that bite the heads off chickens. It is so, so much more than that. It surpasses every and any expectation. This book has made it into my top 20 of all time.