Geek Love

This story is twisted in the most disturbing and delightful way. Freaks! Carnivals! Freak Strip Clubs! Eccentric millionaires! Amputations! Cults! The story of a different kind of family. Mom was a sideshow geek (someone who bites the heads off of live chickens), two daughters are siamese twins, a son is a "fish boy" (a torso with flipperish hands and feet but no arms or...more

This story is twisted in the most disturbing and delightful way. Freaks! Carnivals! Freak Strip Clubs! Eccentric millionaires! Amputations! Cults! The story of a different kind of family. Mom was a sideshow geek (someone who bites the heads off of live chickens), two daughters are siamese twins, a son is a "fish boy" (a torso with flipperish hands and feet but no arms or legs) and the story is told by another daughter who is an albino hunchbacked dwarf. This family knows and appreciates their individuality and feels sad or disgusted by the "norms". The writing style is a little weird but you get used to it. I Loved it!   hide

Unsettling

No, it's not what you think. Geek Love concerns a failing family traveling circus that is revived when the couple that owns it start intentionally breeding freaks as attractions. All the fun and drama of a stunningly dysfunctional family combined with freaks, new-found religion, sex scandals, and murder. If you get disturbed easily, please don't read this book.

for people who like the weird...

It was amazing, but that doesn't necessarily mean I liked it. Disturbing, dark and twisted, this novel evokes John Irving at his highest peaks of lunacy and sorrow. It takes a lot to disgust or disturb me in a book, but Arturo's operation on the twins made me feel pretty ill, as did the poor Chick throughout. Read it for its excellent use of description, family relationships,...more

It was amazing, but that doesn't necessarily mean I liked it. Disturbing, dark and twisted, this novel evokes John Irving at his highest peaks of lunacy and sorrow. It takes a lot to disgust or disturb me in a book, but Arturo's operation on the twins made me feel pretty ill, as did the poor Chick throughout. Read it for its excellent use of description, family relationships, alternative world perspectives, and fucked-up-edness. If you have a slightly weaker stomach, try The Hotel New Hampshire. If that doesn't phase you, then try Geek Love.   hide

Totally bizarre!

A truly unique novel chronicling the lives of a family of circus freaks where the parents engineer their own children's "special" attributes for maximum effect on the rubes. No matter what you start this novel expecting....it will go further and to much stranger places than you you'd expect--best comparison is John Steinbeck by way of Philip K. Dick.

If you are looking for unconventional fiction (borderline science fiction) this would be an excellent choice.

I don't hate it, but I don't love it. There is a lot of the book I don't understand ... so I guess it's good that we're reading it for book club. Maybe I will have more insight after the meeting. Plus, carnies kind of creep me out.Addendum: After discussing it at book club, I decided it's a much better book than I had thought. I still don't love it, but it's much...more

I don't hate it, but I don't love it. There is a lot of the book I don't understand ... so I guess it's good that we're reading it for book club. Maybe I will have more insight after the meeting. Plus, carnies kind of creep me out.Addendum: After discussing it at book club, I decided it's a much better book than I had thought. I still don't love it, but it's much more intricate than I realized. It's definitely a book that requires discussion with others, though ... and it also really requires you to suspend your disbelief, which I think is the hardest part of reading this book.   hide