I thought that the way she handled the community of the carnival, or the “freak show”, was very well done. I’ll admit, that it’s a little bit unfair to Hocking and to what she did. It’s probably the same part that likes to watch terrible, downgrading reality TV on TLC. Even though Gideon’s troop is mostly consisting of people with special, and sometimes supernatural powers rather than deformities, a morbid part of me still wanted to read about some weird stuff. However, I’m certain that “freak shows” have all but died out by 1987, or at least significantly switched focus. I can imagine that before the existence of the internet and Netflix, they might have been even more popular. This is where things start getting spooky.Ĭarnivals and fairs are still a common and somewhat popular affair in certain parts of North America and the world. The self-named carnival leader Gideon Davorin has been promised a big payday if the carnival completes their contracted seven days of performances. It is set in the mid 1987’s, and at that time “freak shows” are not doing as well as they used to, so by the time that their caravan rolls into a small town called Caudry in Louisiana, Gideon Davorin’s Traveling Carnival is dirt poor broke.
It follows a young Mara who lives and travels with a “freak show” – or rather, a carnival – along with her ring-wearing, necromancer mother. The story had a good premise and some very good potential. Freeks by Amanda Hocking lies somewhere in the middle, nudging dangerously close to the ugly.ĭon’t get me wrong, Freeks wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. YA has changed since then, dramatically I would say, and as with all things, it has come with the good and the ugly.
I remember how back when I was a preteen in the very early 2000’s, it was my favourite section in the library, and reading books from there made me feel oh-so-grown-up. The Young Adult genre has been blowing up over the years. I will start this review with honesty: I am not a huge YA reader (even though that has been changing recently), but I always enjoy a good story.
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