Freeks

by Amanda Hocking

Freeks is an atmospheric story of powerful mysteries and dark secrets by Amanda Hocking, author of the phenomenal Trylle trilogy and the Kanin Chronicles.

As darkness rises, will Gabe help Mara find the truth?

In the spring of 1987, the carnival comes to small-town Caudry, Louisiana. Then events take a dangerous turn. For Mara Beznik, the carnival is home. It's also a place of secrets, hidden powers and a buried past - making it hard to connect with outsiders. However, sparks fly when she meets local boy Gabe Alvarado. As they become inseparable, Mara realizes Gabe is hiding his own secrets. And his family legacy could destroy Mara's world.

They find the word 'freeks' sprayed on trailers, as carnival employees start disappearing. Then workers wind up dead, killed in disturbing ways by someone or something. Mara is determined to unlock the mystery, with Gabe's help. But can they really halt this campaign of fear?

• ISBN10: 1509807659
• ISBN13: 9781509807659
• Publish Date: 9 February 2017 (first published 3 January 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 26 November 2022
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Imprint: Pan Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[lizarodz]

3.5

Freeks is my first book by Amanda Hocking. I’ve been reading glowing reviews of her books for years so when I saw her new book, I decided to read it.

First of, this is a historical that reads like an urban paranormal. It takes place in a period of 10 days in 1987. I’m very partial to this decade since I was a teenager back then, so I can relate to the music, cassettes, movies and more. The setting is a small town in Louisiana where the Carnival has been invited to perform. The carnival has your typical rides (like the Ferris wheel), games and also a sideshow kind of shows, including a horror house and fortune reader. Now, most of the people on the sideshow side of things have powers or abilities and they have suffered a life of abuse, prejudice and suffering because of it, and thus, they stick together.

Mara is the daughter of a necromancer who can talk to spirits. She doesn’t seem to have powers and works doing whatever is needed around the camp and the sideshow. Mara is from Egyptian/Hindu decent, so good for diversity. She’s brave, loyal, realistic, and smart.

On the first day in town she meets Gabe and they hit it off right away. Gabe is rich, but down to earth boy that’s very sweet and doesn’t treat Mara like a freak. The romance was way too fast for me. I know that paranormal books lend well for the insta-romance, but I don’t feel like it worked well here. I don’t think Mara and Gabe had enough time to know each other, and hardly spend time together.

I liked that the parents of both Gabe and Mara were present in the story. I also enjoyed the remainder of the characters and the powers they had and learning a little bit about their backgrounds and how they ended up in the Sideshow.

The story is told from the first POV, Mara’s. The writing was very good, but I found the pace to be slow. I think the readers was kept in the dark for too long, with hints here and there of what was going on. Also, the ending was a bit to neat and fast for me, especially after all the build up.

Overall, Freeks is about the paranormal and unique, of accepting the differences, about friendship and family, about right and wrong and about love. It will not be my last read by Hockin

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

I have no idea why I'm so drawn to Paranormal circus stories, but I am, and I knew I had to read Freeks. I'm really glad I did, because it was so fun! Yes, the plot is predictable and there's insta-love, but I was hooked from the very beginning and thoroughly enjoyed it. Mara is part of a traveling carnival, where the employees mostly all have supernatural abilities (not that the audience knows). Unfortunately, they're going broke and if their upcoming stint in Caudry isn't successful, they'll have nothing. Well, Caudry isn't at all the sleepy small town that it appears to be, and getting out alive is more important than getting paid.

Freeks does start out with the typical introduction to our narrator, Mara, who is an ordinary girl amongst the extraordinary. She doesn't complain though. It just is what it is, and she helps the carnival however she can. Then she meets a boy, and relishes being a regular girl for once and not part of a freak show. I did really like Mara and how she starts a relationship with Gabe without intending it to be serious. Obviously, it does develop into more, but Mara knows she's leaving and just wants to enjoy it while she can.

The plot of Freeks revolves around the strangeness of Caudry. When a bunch of supernatural circus performers think a town feels weird and randomly get attacked, you know something big must be going on. While I did figure out who was behind everything, I didn't come close to guessing the details. It wasn't a huge shock, but I was still very interested in this weirdness. I know that is very vague, but I don't want to spoil anything! There's a kind of good vs evil showdown at the end.

Basically, I liked Freeks a lot. The circus setting is fun, and the creepy small town was interesting. It's not the most original story, and I've definitely read the same basic premise plenty of times before, but it still had something about it that I just enjoyed. The romance was pretty cute and being set in 1987 added a little extra something special.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[readingwithwrin]

3.5 stars

"As soon as we crossed the line into town, the air seemed even colder than before. That's when I realized the chill wasn't coming from outside- it was coming from within me."

See reviews first on my blog

Mara is a young woman who has lived a life on the road traveling around with a carnival sideshow. While she herself doesn't yet do anything in the show. Her mother does as a fortune teller, and Mara runs around being everyone's help. Because of this type of life though Mara has lived a very different life then most people her age and would rather spend her free time reading or admiring real houses.
Things are a bit different for the carnies though in this new town, something isn't quite right and the the 'powers' they normally have aren't working properly. Between one of the people going missing and anther being viciously attacked none of them are sure what to do. Do they stick it out until the end of the week in order to get payed or should they all pack up and leave before anyone else gets hurt.
With the help of a townie Mara and the rest of the carnies just might be able to stop what is happening to them and keep it from happening in the future.


"After spending the past decade living in a motor home, one of my guiltiest pleasure was looking around actual houses, and I'd never been in one quite as nice as this."

This is my third book by Amanda Hocking so I really enjoyed her writing and her world building. This book takes place in the late 1980's but it isn't one that is purely focused on things from that era. Instead it just briefly mentions music and record players and instead is mostly focused on supernatural and the powers that the carnies possess. I did like Mara and I thought she was a good character. The friendships she had with the other carnies were real and believable, you could tell that they all really did care for each other, and because of that when one of them did get hurt, it wasn't easy to read.
As for the romance in this book, I wasn't thrilled with it. Mainly because even though Mara could tell something was off with the guy she still went on multiple dates with him. Thankfully it turned out to be okay, but what if it hadn't. I mean come on most of the time when you have a gut feeling so strongly about someone, it's something that you should listen to.
"The wicked glint lingered in his eyes- a permanent remind that there was something about him I shouldn't trust."
Overall I did think this was a pretty good book, and I can't wait to read more by Hocking in the future and see what world she can come up with next.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.