Carnivalesque

by Neil Jordan

It looked like any other carnival, but of course it wasn’t…

It had its own little backstreets, its alleyways of hanging bulbs and ghost trains and Punch and Judy stands …
And at the end of one he saw the Hall of Mirrors. There were looping strings of carnival lights leading towards it, and a large sign in mirrored glass reading ‘Burleigh’s Amazing Hall of Mirrors’ and the sign reflected the lights in all sorts of magically distorted ways.

To Andy and his parents, it looks like any other carnival: creaking ghost train, rusty rollercoaster and circus performers. But of course it isn’t.

Drawn to the hall of mirrors, Andy enters and is hypnotised by the many selves staring back at him. Sometime later, one of those selves walks out rejoins his parents – leaving Andy trapped inside the glass, snatched from the tensions of his suburban home and transported to a world where the laws of gravity are meaningless and time performs acrobatic tricks.

And now an identical stranger inhabits Andy’s life, unsettling his mother with a curious blankness, as mysterious events start unfolding in their Irish coastal town…

• ISBN10: 140888139X
• ISBN13: 9781408881392
• Publish Date: 23 February 2017
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 28 January 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Imprint: Bloomsbury Circus
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[Joséphine]

Note: I received an advanced reading copy from a local distributor in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

Initial thoughts: Reading Carnivalesque was like staring at a snow globe — it was enthralling but divorced the audience/reader of deeper engagement. The characters came off as shells, especially in comparison to the setting with its mysterious atmosphere. With a plot that seemed to go nowhere half the time, I missed the connection to the characters. While I pitied their plights, I felt a distinct lack of empathy. That distance coupled with a great sense of unknowingness left me floating throughout the book. On an intellectual level, however, Carnivalesque did challenge me. For one, the notion of changelings always begs the question of identity. For another, the prose required full concentration in order to grasp the meaning and various imageries. To me, the setting was what made this book memorable, alongside some of the morbid moments that blurred the lines between the living and the dead.