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WoGF Review: Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
Melanie Ross (mellyn) discovered science fiction, fantasy and horror novels in her early teens. During the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, she maintained a (probably unhealthy) obsession with Robert Jordan’s Wheel Of Time. Since emerging from that void, she has made an effort to continually widen her reading horizons. The WoGF Reading Challenge seemed a perfect way to further that aim. Her blog can be found at http://books.mellyn.net.
The word that comes to mind, when it comes to Geek Love, is disturbing.
Binewski’s Fabulon is a traveling carnival owned by Aloysius ‘Al’ Binewski. It was originally founded by his father, referred to only as Grandpa, who has long since been cremated. His ashes continue on, though, as the silver urn containing them is bolted to the hood of the carnival’s generator truck.
Al’s wife, Lillian ‘Crystal Lil’ Binewski, was a Boston debutante. A pretty young woman, she joined the carnival as a geek, gleefully biting off the heads of live chickens before swallowing them. She’d always wanted to fly, though, so when given the chance she attempted to become a trapeze artist. When she fell, breaking her nose and collarbone, Al got the nerve to propose.
Carnival life not always being a steady stream of income, Al and Lil decided to give their children an inbuilt ability to provide for themselves in a way not available to ‘norms’ like themselves. Through each of Lil’s pregnancies, she took a wide variety of supplements to ensure the best results possible. Arsenic, pesticides and drugs, you name it, Al prescribed them and Lil happily gobbled them down. And the results paid off.
