The Freakshow

By: Bryan Smith

Narrated by: Dean Gallagher

The Flaherty Brothers Traveling Carnivale and Freakshow has come to the quiet town of Pleasant Hills, Tennessee. But this is no ordinary sideshow and these are not the usual "freaks" on display. As the unsuspecting townsfolk gather for an evening of strange spectacle, the slaughter is set to begin...

©2012 Bryan Smith (P)2021 Fireside Horror

Critic reviews

"The Freakshow is one of the most fun reads I've had in a long time." (Dread Central)

"The Freakshow is a sure bet to cement Bryan Smith's position in the forefront of the bold and shocking writers producing exceptional books within the horror genre." (Horror World)

Loved it! What a fun story

The performance and the story the characters and everything were great. If you are looking for a very interesting and twisted story look no further.

Fast moving, Freaky clown, Complex characters

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.

Not memorable, kind of boring

The book was ok, doesn't stand out much. Some moments were cool but overall it was kind of boring.

C movie style horror.

this is a Troma style book. good but not great. Definitely a late night horror movie style.

Meh.

Kinda sounds like it was written by a high schooler. Not much room for imagination because there is too much unneeded detail. A lot of the sentences were predictable, even.