SHAWNA LEWIS!

Congrats you lovely lady! You will be receiving a copy of Sideshow: Ten Original Tales of Freaks, Illusionists, and Other Matters Odd and Magical on your doorstep soon.

Be sure to keep an eye on TP in the new few weeks, as I have a HUGE giveaway planned. Details to come soonish  ;)

Pshew. For a blog that’s supposed to be about short reviews, that was one long half-update. I figure since it’s the OMGGRANDGALAOPENING of my blog, it’s cool. Plus, y’know, it’s like reviewing 10 mini-books. But from now on, look forward to more succinct posts.

Now that is out of the way…ONWARDS TO PART THE SECOND!

When God Came to Kathleen’s Garden – David Almond

Almond’s story centers around a group of children who encounter a strange, robe-clad man chilling in a neighbor’s backyard.  When Robey McSandles starts pulling out magic tricks, the children jump to the obvious conclusion—this man must be God!

This was an all-around fun story, from “God’s” communications and Kathleen’s hissy fits, to the familiar feelings of adolescent neighborhood politics. The ambiguous ending only adds to the story’s charms. However, the lack of overall action and slow intro keeps When God Came to Kathleen’s Garden from blossoming into truly great territory.

Score: 7.5/10

The Shadow Troup – Shawn Cheng

For Chen’s story we are introduced to a three-generation traveling shadow show troupe on their way to perform at a banquet. After dealing with a greedy and belligerent employer, they decide to work their own brand of magic storytelling.

This graphic story was a winner, with an interesting story and mythology, as well as great pacing and a “villain” to rally against. The grandfather’s Cryptkeeper looks were a smidge distracting, but that’s just, like, my opinion, man.

Score: 8/10

Cat Calls – Cynthia Leitich Smith

This story, about a girl spending her first night filling in for her grandmother as a “spiritual consultant” at a traveling carnival, is a hard one to score. My one word assessment would have to be “meh.” The writing is decent and Smith is able to inject a little wordplay, but the ending seems too bizarre and unconnected to the build-up to be satisfying.

Score: 6/10

The Bread Box – Cecil Castellucci

I’ll come right out and say it: this story was amazing. The Bread Box, a story about a teen girl who visits her strange, hermit aunt and learns how to make traditional family bread, is by far the best of the collection. Of course, this synopsis does it no justice; the story quickly branches out into the unbelievable and macabre.  It is creepy and odd, fascinating and sad, everything a story in a sideshow anthology should be. Interestingly enough, this is the only entry that does not involve an actual carnival or sideshow. I really cannot say enough about this strange but emotional tale so I’ll just leave it at this: PERFECT.

Score: 10/10

Living Curiosities – Margo Lanagan

This story, about a short-statured girl and an incident at her carnival, had a similar effect on me as Smith’s Cat Calls: not really bad, but not really good. In fact, it seems to be the flip-flopped companion to Calls, with the beginning dragging on (my mind started to wander approximately three pages in) but ending strongly. I appreciated the somber look at Non’s life and mindset at the conclusion, as well as the “incident” that happens halfway through, but unfortunately these do not make up for the lackluster lead-in.

Score: 5.5/10

Jargo! – Matt Phelan

With this final graphic story, Phelan provides a fitting cap to this eerie and freakish collection. In Jargo!, we are shown the tale of a three-man giraffe act and its show-stopping creator. This graphic inclusion finally hits the target, using a dark tale of oddities to fully submerge the reader in the moods of a true freakshow. The story veers toward the strange and frightening while still keeping the reader on board. I also loved the simple yet expressive artwork—after the dark shading of the previous two graphic stories, the white space and thin, light lines of Jargo! were refreshing. And the final frames conveyed such a feeling of melancholy and lost memories, I could almost hear the slow churn of carnival music on the blank pages remaining.

Score: 10/10

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Overall Score for Sideshow: Ten Original Tales of Freaks, Illusionists, and Other Matters Odd and Magical:

7.5/10

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The Short of It: An interesting and intriguing collection worth reading; however, a few stories fall short, not living up to the resonance of past anthologies.

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The Superficial: I found the cover to be well done. The  combination of red, orange and blue elements is an odd choice, and the title does blend in a tad with the graphic, but the typography really won me over. The font screams sideshow without saying “I enjoy comic-sans” or something equally ridiculous. I especially love the mismatched fonts in the secondary title– it truly looks like an old-school curiosities sign.

As I also tend to read hardcover books without their slip covers, I thought the bright blue foil print on the black spine was snazzy. And I loved seeing the electric blue of the inside cover peek over the pages while I was reading.  So I like packaging, okay? Don’t judge.

The Long of It: As a whole, I really enjoyed the novel. Noyes gets major points for coming up with a  fresh topic. Not even a hint of vampires anywhere!

Listen, can we have a talk YA? I love a good, soulless, blood-sucking vampire as much as the next girl. But...*sigh* how do I say this? I think you have a problem.

The anthology collects 10 stories of the “freaks” that inhabit your local homegrown carnival sideshows. Bearded ladies, fortune-tellers, mummies and even…God?  The inclusion of three graphic stories also adds a refreshing bit of variety and depth to the genre.

However, as good as an editor’s intentions and ideas can be, the true weight  of collection lies on the individual stories themselves. So, in order to truly review the book, we must look at all of its parts.

“The Bearded Girl” – Aimee Bender

Bender’s story deals with thirteen-year-old Molly and her beard. Molly is ostracized at school for her freakishly fast growing, and razor-defying, facial hair. Finally fed up with the torture of her schoolmates, Molly does what hundreds before her have only threatened–she joins the circus. Then, one day while reciting her beardy monologue to the audience, she sees a familiar face.

I absolutely loved “The Bearded Girl” and believe it is one of the best in the collection. Not only is Molly likable, but she’s also respectable. She doesn’t wither and die when her friends turn on her; she’s a trooper. The best part about Molly is that she actually likes her beard. She doesn’t let other peoples’ disgust taint her self-view. The only reason she attempts to shave off her new, curly, red face-friend is to throw her worrisome mother a bone.

Not only is Bender’s crafting of Molly flawless, but the introduction of an old classmate into Molly’s new freakshow world is handled with strength. We are never 100% sure of her new visitor’s intentions, or if his outlandish story is true, but this only adds to the story’s magic. Bender then closes the story with a toe-tingling, intimate moment–without resorting to the cliche “end story redemption kiss.”

Score: 9/10

“Those Psychics on TV” – Vivian Vande Velde

This story is a hard one to describe without giving away too much, so I’ll keep this short. “Those Psychics on TV” revolves around what happens when Cody, a  fan of tawdry Crossing Over-type daytime programming,  plans on attending a psychic reading event in an attempt to catch the sham in action.

I was pleasantly surprised with Velde’s selection. Cody has a unique voice and style without being too distracting (I was worried when the story started with Cody complaining that they “couldn’t get the TV picture so good” in the trailer park, but thankfully the “gee shucks we poor” talk died down once the story picked up). Add in a little humor and a big surprise and you end up with a satisfying title.

Score: 8/10

“Year of the Rat” – Danica Novgorodoff

“Year of the Rat” kicks off the first of the collection’s three graphic stories…and the result is a bomb. Unfortunately, this story was by far the weakest of the novel. I even read it more than once, hoping to have missed something. It follows a private in the U.S. Army during his trip to a freakshow on New Year’s Eve in China. Not only is the beginning stereotypical and partially offensive (I felt like I were one step away from someone promising to love me long time), but the story is slightly unclear and mostly pointless.

In short, Private Pancake (yes, Pancake) writes letters to his assumed girlfriend “Nell” as he views the freakshow, although his corresponace adds nothing of meaning to the story (other than giving Pancake reason to gawk at a Human-Torso Girl’s boobs). He then meets “the Mayor” of the city, shoots his freakshow rat, then races his bike into a river and…dies? Disappears? Swims to Freedom? Grows a pair of wings and bombs the Russians? I’m not really sure. And honestly? I don’t think I really care.

Score: 2/10

“The Mummy’s Daughter” – Annette Curtis Klause

Out of all of the stories, this was the one I was most anticipating. I am a big fan of Klause’s previous works, namely The Silver Kiss and Blood and Chocolate, and I know she has experience in this topic, as Freaks: Alive, on the Inside! is currently residing on my bookshelf. However, I was disappointed by “The Mummy’s Daughter”. It felt as though Klause had the bare-bones notes of a full-sized novel, then squished it together to make a short story.

The story focuses on Tia, a dancer and storyteller for an oddity show, and her mummified, 3,000-year-old, heartbroken, Egyptian proxy-goddess mother. Tia performs a sultry interpretive dance while retelling her mother’s tale of love, woe, and waiting. Klause uses her fantastic writing to really pull the reader in, letting you hear the tinkle of Tia’s beads and see her kohl-rimmed eyes narrow, but it’s the pacing of the story that falls short. In the mummy-tale-turned-short-lived-mystery, the story speeds into a frenzy as Klause introduces the real conflict of the story only a few pages from its end. In rapid fire succession, Tia notices something strange, gets caught, hears the culprit’s evil plan, fights for her life, and is saved by a glaringly obvious and dusty deus ex machina, all in the span of three pages. It is a true shame that the story seems so rushed, as the plot combined with Klause’s writing had excellent potential. If you can overlook the pacing, however, you might still enjoy this offering.

Score: 6/10

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Check back soon for my second part of the Sideshow review.