There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

An evocative noir story with good characterisation and a solid plot. Did wish for slightly more circus but in the end I enjoyed this story and am thankful to netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm really right in the middle on this one. Given its length, it is a quick read. While it was fun I couldn't help wanting a bit more. I've always been of fan of sideshow acts however so I knew I just had to read this one!

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

I was so excited for this book for many reasons, but the biggest being that I adore stories about the circus and the performers.

I wish i had ONLY good things to stay about this book, but unfortunately I don't. The premise was there... the concept exciting.. but it was missing something essential. The story was boring in many places.. and the pace wasn't quick enough.

But like i said, the concept was amazing...

A circus, a tattooed man named Sue and a cast of weird and wonderful characters. What more could you want from a book? Throw in a storm which displaces these characters to a confined setting and some strange goings-on and you’re bound to be intrigued.

For all these reasons, as well as that striking pink cover, I was itching to read Keith McCleary’s Circus + The Skin. When, upon further investigation, I read about Mr McCleary’s background, I knew that this would not be a boring read. 

Full review on https://wanderingwestswords.wordpress.com

Circus + The Skin is a really interesting book. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. It was not at all what I was expecting. I always try to avoid reader reviews until after I’ve read a book in order to avoid letting someone else’s POV inform my own experience of a story, and I’m particularly glad that I did so here. I was expecting (based on the genre tags on both GoodReads and Net Galley) to read a horror/thriller, but what I got was more of a noir mystery set against a discombobulated carnival backdrop. It was a really lovely, if completely unexpected surprise.

Sue is a wonderful character – he’s got a lot of story, a fair amount of darkness, and a slippery enough grip on reality to really make me love him. I mean, he’s certainly not mad, but he is carrying around the weight of a lot of spiritual unrest. The push and pull of ‘is it supernatural or just the weight of his own guilt’ vibes reminded me of the Netflix adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House – Sue brings to mind the Crain family for me in that he is similarly haunted by his past. Like the Crains, his own past weighs so heavily on him that the audience (well, me) is left to wonder if some of these crazy happenings aren’t manifestations of guilt – either psychologically or otherwise (like Nell – was that because of supernatural forces, or was the haunting situation merely a manifestation of severe and untreated mental illness?). Have I gone totally off the deep end here? I don’t know, there’s just … something reminiscent of the Crain family here…

"But I know now the price for storing shadows. I know how hard they are to clear out, once they’re in."

There it is. That quote. The Crain clan was likewise in the business of storing shadows that they were struggling mightily to clear out.

Wait.

How did this become a review of a re-imagining of a different book? Sorry. Digression over. Back to this rather wonderful book.

McCleary’s writing is evocative. I never once struggled to see characters or settings. His cast of characters, while fairly large, never fell flat. Everyone who mattered was fleshed out surprisingly well for such a short novel. He mentions in the Afterword that the book partially owes its existence to Ray Bradbury – and I think that shows. Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes is the eponymous carnival-horror novel, and I can see some similarities in Sue to Mr. Dark – although those similarities are more to do with his aura of darkness and mystery than anything. If you’ve read Something Wicked then you know – Mr. Dark is fucking scary. Sue is definitely not that, but he’s no innocent either.

This book was a lot of fun. It’s a quick read, but the quality doesn’t suffer for its lack of length. McCleary tells an efficient, well-plotted mystery, and certain aspects of the resolution genuinely surprised me.

The circus is one of my favorite settings to read about. They are magical and mythical with something dark hiding just out of eyesight. Great books have been writing in this setting such as Ray Bradbury's classics: Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Illustrated Man and after reading the author's notes I liked that the main character, Sue , had been inspired by these two books.

The story is written in the first person and is focused on Sue, the circuses Tattooed Man. We meet him traveling on the road in one of the circus trailers but they have separated from the others due to a storm. Waiting for the others to catch up they sit in a rural cornfield, isolated and slightly lost. Finally, someone from the circus stumbles along the road but her wrists are tied to her ankles and she has news waking up tied like this and devastation around her. The small group moves to a tiny town they see in the distance and on top of the hill a boarding house where other survivors have gathered. Soon the circus starts taking over the boarding house and Sue's past starts to resurface.

Throughout the book McCleary uses wonderful phrases to provoke imagery, such as the circus survivors begin described as a small army, taking over the house like an invading plague. However, I felt the story was slightly anti-climatic. This story had so much potential and some shocking and gory parts that felt they were leading up to something spectacular to be swept aside. I particularly liked the character of Mr. Tall Suitcased Stringbonesas Sue first names the character. He is first introduced as Seeing his grin before we could make out his face. How terrifying is that!? Especially as they are isolated in a cornfield. I wanted more from this character, I wanted him to be darker and scarier.

With all said and done, I still rate this book as 4 stars as I did enjoy it...but I wanted more...

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Fascinating, creepy and extremely well written. I usually don't like novellas (too short - I like to live with a story for at least 300 pages) but this was grace. Characters like you have never met before, all circus folk, they will enchant you! Definitely a book I will read again.

This is a truly unique book, and that's saying something coming from someone who's been reading tales in this genre for decades. I remember the last traveling circus I saw, many, many years ago in the midwest. The performers and support staff were immensely fascinating, and based on my own observations, pretty accurately portrayed. Haunting and almost wistful, this is a great read and comes highly recommended!

*Thanks to both the publisher and the author for allowing me to read an ARC of this book free of charge, in exchange only for an honest review."

I've read over 100 books this year, but Keith McCleary's upcoming novel Circus + The Skin is by far the strangest of the lot. The narrator is a tattooed man named Sue who is traveling with a circus that is knocked off course and begins to experience a series of unfortunate (and, perhaps, supernatural) events. The homage to Ray Bradbury is very clear and is one of the reasons I picked up the book. The short, densely descriptive chapters read like the beginnings of Bradbury's short stories. The novel is at its strongest when Sue narrates his past as a soldier (possibly in Korea, possibly in Vietnam) - even though we're never certain if he's telling the truth. There are also some very real moments of gore/horror (they involve lions). However, very little actually happens in the novel and it does not make good use of some of its eeriest props (Ambrose, the meteor). All in all, this is a pleasantly creepy read for those looking to expand their genre horizons from the same old thing.

I wanted to like this book, but there were not enough inciting elements to fuel the slow paced plot. Unfortunately, I put the book down halfway through, which is something I rarely do. But considering that it took several attempts for me to get past the first few chapters, I couldn't keep reading a book that never hook me.

The characters seemed intriguing and I wanted to sink into the story world promised by the back cover, but it was just too slow. The chapters are short and choppy, so while the plot moves at snail pace, there also isn't enough content within the chapters to really sink my teeth into. Overall, it just didn't work for me.

But everyone has different tastes, so I'd suggest flipping through the first few chapters to see if it's a book that can hook you.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book. I always love stories about circuses. This story was really good. Is it supernatural or all in the mind? The main character really drew me in with all that he had been through. A much recommended book. I hope this author writes much more to come.

I liked this book and found it entertaining and engrossing. It's got the right level of creepiness, the cast of characters is well written and the plot kept my attention.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Looking at the reviews, after the fact, I see readers either loved or hated this book. I am somewhere in between. Great premise, lots of tension and creepiness. At times, a little too mystical gray area...reality...PTSD....supernatural....who can tell?

Yet another book that had me at circus. I mean, it’s right there in the title. And it’s intriguing sounding and short…perfect, sold. Even without all the flattering comparisons and praises. An interesting book. I read a lot, a lot of circus related or set fiction and watch all the movies/tv shows/ documentaries I can find about it. Obsessed? Nah, passionate. Out of all of that multicolored pot, this one most reminded me of Carnivale in the mood and tone, not the plot. What’s unusual here is that it’s a fairly modern story, set 36 years back, but it reads so much older. Maybe the middle of the nowhere places don’t age as much as the cities, maybe it’s a deliberate stylistic choice, but this might have been straight out of a variety of decades from the past. The main protagonist is a boy named Sue, well, a man really, a man named Sue, a war vet, severely traumatized and thoroughly tattooed. So the skin gets him into the circus, hence the name. Much like the guy in Memento utilized his skin as a sort of personal calendar, Sue uses his as a sort of commemorative art project. All the places he’s been to, all the people he’s known, Sue’s tattoos trace his life. And his life in the circus is fairly agreeable, despite it being a dying art and all that. But then a storm, an ominous freak meteor storm no less, hits the traveling caravan, separating the performers, destroying a significant amount of circus’ property and stranding them in a small town. From there on a series of increasingly dangerous events proceed to occur, in a way that might have been supernatural in a different story, but here does eventually end up with a rational explanation. So there are elements of mysterious here, even something along the lines of a murder mystery, but the story itself is something different, something more. It’s essentially Sue’s journey, the circus is nothing but another place on his travel map, and it’s a sort of quintessential all American journey of a quintessential all American man. It’s surreal and violent and tragic, a generation interrupted and scarred by war and political turmoil and too many changes occurring too fast. In that way, I suppose the timing of the story works. Although, arguably, it might have been set in a different time with a different war, any after WWI or WWII, which were the righteous conflicts as much as conflicts can be. Sue is a pretty compelling protagonist and there’s an interesting variegated cast of characters surrounding him, as you would expect from a circus. Freaks, geeks and carnies all the way. This was the author’s passion project, something that took a long time to bring to light, and the passion comes across. There’s a genuine understanding of the circus dynamics, the down and dirty realism of it all and yes, also the magic of it all. For a circus fan, this is definitely a good choice. And it works very well as just a bleak slice of Americana. It sort of read like a really strange dream, not quite a nightmare, but disturbing and engaging and at the same time you don’t want to linger in it for too long (and at 168 pages only, you won’t have to). Love it when short books are done right. Good, sad, dark book with an interesting premise and a poignant ending. Muddy grey story with a pink cover. Thanks Netgalley.