Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

Geek Love

by Katherine Dunn

A National Book Award Finalist: This 'wonderfully descriptive' novel from an author with a 'tremendous imagination' tells the unforgettable story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias have bred their own exhibit of human oddities. (The New York Times Book Review)

The Binewskis arex a circus-geek family whose matriarch and patriarch have bred their own exhibit of human oddities (with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes). Their offspring include Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan, Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins, albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family's most precious - and dangerous - asset.

As the Binewskis take their act across the backwaters of the US, inspiring fanatical devotion and murderous revulsion; as its members conduct their own Machiavellian version of sibling rivalry, Geek Love throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the obscene.

Family values will never be the same.

Praise for Geek Love

'If Flannery O'Connor had consumed vast quantities of LSD, she might have written like this' Literary Review

'The most romantic novel about love and family I have read. It made me ashamed to be so utterly normal' Terry Gilliam

'I felt electrocuted when I read that first page with Crystal Lil and her freak brood. I stood there in the bookstore and my jaw came unhinged. No book I've read, before or since, has given me that specific jolt' Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia

Reviewed by clementine on

5 of 5 stars

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I LOVED this book. It gripped me right from the beginning, promising to be twisted and gruesome. It didn't disappoint. It was horrifying and disturbing and very, very dark. There's nothing more terrifying than medical horror!

The story is a little slow to really begin, but Dunn leaves a trail of tantalizing hints so it's not boring. The drugs, the shooter, Miranda - everything makes you want to keep reading.

It's a testament to Dunn's writing that Arty is both absolutely despicable and yet somehow charming. He charmed me, the same way he charmed all the Arturans. Even though I knew I should hate him, I couldn't fully.

All the plot threads worked so well together - Miranda, Miss Lick, the Arturans, the twins' pregnancy. There was just enough shown to be creepy and just enough left to the imagination to be completely horrifying.

This is definitely going to be one of my favourites.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 8 May, 2017: Finished reading
  • 8 May, 2017: Reviewed
  • Started reading
  • Finished reading
  • 8 May, 2017: Reviewed