Hello and welcome to my blog tour post for
FREEKS by Amanda Hocking!
Today I let you see my review of the novel and give one lucky US reader a chance to win a copy of the book below, so make sure you keep scrolling. But first, let's learn more about the book!
FREEKS
Author: Amanda HockingSeries: N/A
Source: eARC via Publisher
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: January 3, 2017
Rating: 4/5 stars
Summary:
Welcome to Gideon Davorin’s Traveling Sideshow, where necromancy, magical visions, and pyrokinesis are more than just part of the act…
Mara has always longed for a normal life in a normal town where no one has the ability to levitate or predict the future. Instead, she roams from place to place, cleaning the tiger cage while her friends perform supernatural feats every night.
When the struggling sideshow is miraculously offered the money they need if they set up camp in Caudry, Louisiana, Mara meets local-boy Gabe…and a normal life has never been more appealing.
But before long, performers begin disappearing and bodes are found mauled by an invisible beast. Mara realizes that there’s a sinister presence lurking in the town with its sights set on getting rid of the sideshow freeks. In order to unravel the truth before the attacker kills everyone Mara holds dear, she has seven days to take control of a power she didn’t know she was capable of—one that could change her future forever.
Bestselling author Amanda Hocking draws readers inside the dark and mysterious world of Freeks.
I quite enjoyed this one, but I will disclaim that I have loved all of Hocking's previous novels and am probably not as objective as someone else would be. But this was similar and different from what she has previously written and I really enjoyed every second of it. I did have some minor issues but I would love more books set in this same world -- maybe in the present day -- to explore more of the supernatural elements of it.
It had a Hemlock Grove (the TV show not the terrible book) vibe to me and I really loved it. I was so immersed in the world and the setting , I just couldn't quite get there with the time period. It felt like there were too many winks and nudges to the things that would be there in the 80s to remind the reader over and over that it was in the 80s rather than it feeling natural. I think part of this was the idea that it is a novel and you have to acknowledge it, but I would have liked it to feel a bit more natural than what we got.
I loved the characters, especially Mara. She was so strong in how she felt about herself but still so vulnerable in how she acted around Gabe and the other townies. I think there was a good sense of self and still the insecurity that made her feel really realistic. I would have liked a bit more exploration of how she felt being a minority and not knowing her father or part of her heritage and being in the travelling show as a visible minority -- I thought the idea of her not feeling super comfortable around the townspeople and not sharing her life story with Gabe was really well done, but I felt like a piece of that was missing since her ethnicity was never really explored (at least not as much as I thought it could have been). But her relationship with Gabe felt real and natural and I ship them so hard and I also love that Hocking allows her female characters to be comfortable in their sexuality and have sex in the book because girls do that.
I thought the side characters were good and well fleshed out, but none of them really stuck out to me. I felt like they were their own personalities and characters but there wasn't the same spark to them as there was to Mara. I did however love that they had their pasts and reasons for being with the travelling show and I think I would have liked multiple POVs to explore more of their own stories and see more of their show. But I definitely could see a companion novel from Luka's POV! So !!! Please and thank you in advance.
If you're a fan of Stranger Things, Hemlock Grove, or anything that has that mysterious supernatural twinge to it where you think you know everything but you are still surprised at the end, this is the book for you. Both the US and the UK covers are beautiful, so you should buy them both (like me) and read this novel! I think it took me a total of 1.5 hours to read it because once you start, you don't want to stop. I am disappointed that this isn't a series but think this was a perfect standalone novel by Hocking.
Amanda Hocking is a lifelong Minnesotan obsessed with Batman and Jim Henson. In between watching cooking shows, taking care of her menagerie of pets, and drinking too much Red Bull Zero, she writes young adult urban fantasy and paranormal romance.
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One winner will win a copy of FREEKS by Amanda Hocking. Sponsored by St. Martin's Griffin. US only!
Excited to read this whether or not I win. . .
ReplyDeleteFrostfire is my favorite!
ReplyDeleteI am actually going to be starting this one very soon, so I am looking forward to reading it all the more now after your review! I'm someone who really likes it when the secondary characters are fleshed out well, and it sounds like she has mastered the art of doing this.
ReplyDeleteI've never read any of Amanda Hocking's novels, but I am very intriguied by this one.
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