Review of Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

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By H. Dwyer

*** Spoilers…DUH***

Now depending on if you get the same cover of this book that I did, then you are in for a surprise!

Geek Love is a novel about the Binewski family, a troupe of circus “freaks” who are deliberately bred to be their own exhibition of human oddities. The parents (Al and Crystal) deliberately experimented with drugs in order to give birth to future circus exhibitions to keep the circus going. The story is told primarily though the perspective of Olympia (Oly) who is the youngest daughter of the family and is a hunched back albino dwarf. Oly is completely besotted with her eldest brother Arturo (Aqua-Boy) who has fins for hands and feet that she ignored his competitive and sociopathic tendencies. Tension rises between Arturo and the Siamese twins Electra and Iphy when they bet on who could draw in the most crowds which is only increased with Fortunato (a normal looking boy with telekinetic abilities) is born into the family. The book explores themes of family dysfunctions, identity and the nature of beauty and normality. The book is centralised around the idea of the importance of family combined with the idea of “what is normal?”. It’s a literary take on the same themes displayed in Tod Browning’s 1932 film Freaks; where the centralised characters are perceived by the outside world as the disturbing other, but they deal with the same family drama. Their physical difference that seemingly separate them from the normies is only subjected to the children of the family because their parents make it clear that they are unique and different from everyone else.

On the whole, I thought this book was incredible and completely took me by surprise.  Dunn was able to create fully developed characters throughout and establish a realistic- though horrific- nucleus family. At times I did feel the chapters dragged on slightly but on reflection I could see how everything was integral to the plot. Again, I got frustrated with how infatuated Oly was with her psychopathic brother Arturo. I wanted her to off him multiple times but the fact that Oly doesn’t, clearly expresses the theme of family loyalty that Dunn was trying to convey.

I give it 4.8/5- I think if you are a fan of AHS: Freakshow then you will love this book too!