I enjoyed this one more than other books by this author however I didn't really get drawn into the story. I will keep reading books from this author but they are not on my must read list.

This paranormal romance is very, VERY predictable, and given how little the characters are established as individuals and how little time is spent developing their interactions and relationship before they are apparently deeply in love, inevitable. Which adds a veneer of boredom to the otherwise promising setup of a paranormal carnival troupe.

I absolutely loved this book , I'm a huge fan of the psychic , paranormal, and supernatural novels. This is very well written, I couldn't stop reading ...

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First, what an AMAZING cover. The cover alone gets a star. And that the story takes place during the 80s at a circus also gets it a star. So, that leaves the actual story with one star. Why? That ending.

Think X-Men in a circus and you get a general gist, only it's not actually *that* big of a deal that some of the performers have special powers. I think the way that was treated was great. What I didn't like was 1) I figured out who the baddy was really early, which was disappointing (even southern belles are that nice) and 2) that ending was so saccharine, I now have cavaties.

I was so excited to read this one! I thought it would be like The Night Circus but it is the complete opposite. An 80's horror film but not a good one I don't even know how I finished this and I'm really disappointed because Amanda Hocking. I just don't care.

This book was difficult for me to find anything good to say about it. It lacked what I needed to fully grab my attention. I gave up before I made it half way through

We love Amanda Hocking at my library and she is an auto buy for me. This was a fun, fantasy, but different from her other works.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher on netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

this book was not great.

the love story was rushed and not terribly believable. the end was also rushed and ridiculously easy. overall the story had some good points in terms of setting (carnival, Louisiana) and characters but ultimately I wouldn't recommend reading it.

‘Freeks‘ is well written, is has a good pace and will keep your interest. The main characters are interesting and well developed. The setting in a traveling circus in the 1980’s is interesting, being an 80’s boy myself 😉 .

To me the romantic ‘side’ story wasn’t needed, but ‘hey, that’s me!‘.

Put your legs up, lay at the beach, enjoy the sun and get yourself a copy of ‘Freeks‘, and you’ll have a great day!

Diverting book, but I felt like it tried too hard to assert the time period.

Isn't this cover absolutely stunning? I really love it.
Was the cover the reason I requested it? Mostly, but also because I had just read The Night Circus and I wanted to read something else about a circus.

These books have totally different feels. There is nothing magical about the carnival, it is treated like they are in our modern world, even if this does take place in the late 80s. It was very much set apart and I enjoyed the setting.
I also enjoyed the mystery, trying to figure out who the bad people are --even if it is a bit obvious. What isn't obvious or much explained is.... well, so much more. I'm one of those people who can finish a book and wants most of it to be settled. I like knowing,so there were a few things that have left me pointing at sections going "???"
Also there are so many characters that I did not truly feel connected to any one of them. An of course, the romance *sigh* another one of those where the only thing that connects them seems to be lust.

I enjoyed my time reading it, but was never hooked or attached. I feel like I kept waiting for something to drag me in... but I really liked the story? My confused feelings have me doubting my rating; I keep going back and forth between 3 and 4 stars, so 3.5 it is.

I also think other people may really enjoy this. If you like stories with downplayed magic, carnivals, lots of 80s references, and paranormal mysteries, then perhaps you should give this book a try.

I really really really wanted to love this book, but it just fell short. Mara is a fun character, but she tended to be a bit too tedious for me. And poor Mom, with the headaches! This book became a plod through for me. Sorry, I just did not like it, and I do like most books I read.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Griffin for the perusal.

Good story for young adults and teens. Not as interesting to adult readers of the genre. Some good story writing, but the characters do come off as very young and make bad decisions to adult eyes.

Not a fan of this book. Sorry. I really wanted to like it.

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.
My Thoughts
This book was thoughtfully sent to me by the publishers St Martin's Griffin for a true and honest review and I was asked if I would like to take part in this blog tour.

First off this is a standalone book and not part of any series either now or that I currently know off in the future.

Mara is the main female protagonist of this story and has grown up with the people of the Carnival for a long time despite showing no signs of an ability herself, her mother has necromancy and uses this skill in the carnival to do readings for money.

As a character however, she has an individuality and a sass which instantly made me like her and care what was happening to her.

When we join the Carnival they are struggling financially and are uncertain if they will be able to continue when Gideon is offered to them from a small town called Caudry.

However, nothing is what it seems from the moment they arrive strange things begin to happen and Mara forms an attachment with a "townie" that may or may not be more trouble than its worth.

I have to say that this is a well written and descriptive piece of work, the atmosphere of Caudry itself however appeared to be lost and almost non existent despite the goings on in and around the Carnival camp site which was a shame.

There are paths that could lead to the answers of the strange events which I feel could have been further explored and the finality of the story although fast paced also felt somewhat rushed and could have slowly come to light.

I really enjoyed the time setting of the 80's however, the references took me right back to my childhood and the musical references I played as I read also made the book somewhat more connective.

All in all I feel that this book is somewhat on par with those 80's adventure films such as Goonies and Lost Boys and would definitely recommend it for a light-hearted read.

I rated it 3.5 stars as insta-love does tend to grate on me.

I enjoyed this quick read. Some of the plot points were a bit obvious, but the story ran smoothly and kept me wanting to read more. The characters were relate-able and not too outlandish.

Amanda Hocking is a poster child for success in self-publishing. The legend goes that, unable to find a publisher for the books she wanted to read (and write), she set about putting them up as ebooks on her website, churning them out several a year, and achieved phenomenal success. Later, she signed with a traditional publisher. Clearly, thousands of readers adored her work enough to gobble up each new book in her many series. The question is whether these hastily-written and unedited works would appeal to a more discerning audience. I tried reading one of her self-published books and gave up midway. The prose was clunky, the relationship-centered plot predictable and rather monotonous (endless adolescent hormone-laden angst), and the flashes of originality insufficient to overcome all the other shortcomings. It did show me why she has an audience (like Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight). That audience just isn’t me.

Nevertheless, when I had a chance to read the most recent of her traditionally published books, I decided to give her another try. I supposed that the work would be professionally edited and hence of better quality. The verdict is yes, and no. The good news is that the production values (typesetting, page design, proofreading, that sort of thing) are good. The bad news is that all the flaws of her previous work remain. The prose ranges from serviceable to incredibly trite and clanky (two of my favorites were “a guttural mewling sound” and “books stacked to the brim on my nightstand”). The good news is that her setting and secondary characters are much better developed. The bad news is that the central teenage romance is just as tedious and obvious as ever. The surprising news is that she does seem to be developing as an author, despite herself. In the background of that humdrum story line lurks a truly fascinating tale.

Freeks is set in a traveling carnival, which could be dark and creepy but instead is a haven for people with supernatural talents, which is not only comforting but produces a host of interesting characters. One can produce fire, one is invulnerable to injury, and so forth. Teen Mara plunges into the predictable adolescent crush then the near-broke carnival takes a job in a mysterious town and she meets a devastatingly handsome boy. The schemes behind the job offer, the shadowy creatures that soon attack the carnival members, and other elements take back seat to Mara’s rather pedestrian obsession with Gabe. Far more fascinating is the story of Mara’s mother, Lyanka, a necromancer who works as a fortune-teller, divining the future by conversing with the spirits of the dead. Mara’s own grandmother had this talent, too, it drew her into the darkness and then slowly drove her mad. Mara’s mother knows this, and yet one desperate circumstance after another forces her down that terrible path. Now Mara’s powers are awakening, and her mother is desperate to protect her. What is she willing to do and to what lengths will she go to keep her daughter from the family curse – even at the cost of her own sanity? Only the increasing threat of the shadow creatures impels her to reveal the truth of Mara’s inheritance – both her psychic abilities and a chest of supernatural weapons, gathered and preserved through the generations. Yet all this deep emotional conflict comes at the end of the story, almost as an afterthought.

The fact is that Mara’s mother’s story is far, far more gripping than the tepid romance-with-a-few-fantasy-elements pablum that Hocking serves up. I hope that in the future Hocking will learn to trust her creative instincts and allow herself to grow beyond the amateurish novels of her early career. I hope, too, that her publisher has faith in that new vision, to the point of ruthless editing to prune away the clanking prose, predictable romance lines, and cardboard characters of Freeks to allow a more compelling story (with a much wider audience!) to emerge.

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 Hocking