Bryan Smith (1) (1965–)

This is the second book I've read by Bryan Smith. And I must say, out of the 2, I liked this one so much better. Generally, I've noticed that he likes to take 3 or 4 main characters, and have each chapter focus on one of them, until they either die off or converge. This can be a bit confusing if you have trouble keeping characters straight, as I do. I had to sit for a minute trying to think who he was talking about now.

As for this book, I love the characters, and the freaks are pretty cool. This book has a horror, sci-fi feel to it. Very gory, very fun. I already had a fear of clowns and circus, but this book may ensure that I will try to steer clear if I ever see one again.

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Wow. There was no lead up on this book as Smith jumps us straight into the action. Character introduction happens along with death and mayhem. Personally I liked it; a little more effort to figure out the story threads in my head but also nice because there's a higher likelihood that anyone could die. In other words, the main protagonist that most likely survives the book is not yet set.

The story focuses on The Flaherty Brothers Traveling Circus and Freakshow which goes around to small towns across the country. A strange, mysterious beckoning would bring almost the whole town to the festival. However, this circus and freakshow has a deadlier purpose than entertainment as people are consumed and stolen by the real freaks of the show.

In a normal fashion for Smith's books, there is a lot happening. There are multiple story threads following different groups of people as they survive the chaos they've fallen into. One of the fun things is while the events in one thread will appear and affect other threads, the characters won't necessarily meet. Kind of like real life where someone's actions might affect you despite you never meeting that person. The only other thing I wanted to point out was that I liked how some of the characters were hard to figure out. Were they "good" people? Did they want to help the different people or out for themselves? It kept things slightly off-kilter. Not too much more to say. A good book that I would recommend if you like people trying to survive crazy freaks doing a bunch of weird stuff.… (más)

Because of the projects I've had going on the last several days, I couldn't give this book the full attention it deserved. Under other circumstances, this would have been one of those books I couldn't put down. Every evening when I had to do other things at the time I would normally be reading, I actually missed this book and yearned to get back to it.

The majority of the action in this novel takes place right here in Nashville. That was a big draw for me, plus I've made it a goal to check out more local authors this year. I'm glad I did - this was an awesome book. Another review mentioned _The Stand_ - it definitely has shades of that, but on a smaller scale in terms of the focus. The author gives us just enough locations and characters to provide a full cast without seeming overambitious. Clocking in at around 315 pgs (it was an ebook, that's a rough conversion to pages), it is just the right length to tell the story. There was never a lull - even the quiet moments were filled with tension or apprehension.

There were some WTF moments, definitely, because the author was not afraid to do bad, unimaginable things to good characters to add impact to the story. He doesn't hesitate to pull the rug out from under you - and it works to great effect.

There are some really awesome things about this book that I can't describe without spoilers, but trust me, they're there. All in all, a fun read, a terrifying premise, a book I'm very glad I read.
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