Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #111514 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-02
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Customer Reviews

Gender obscurists reign supreme
"Why don't you want to be like everyone else?" Because I have a glue gun and lots of glitter, so there. Plus, I'd rather be like Billy Bloom, the shadow kids, Mary Jane Mcafferty and hey, even Flip. Essentially the story is about Billy, a new kid in school who is faced with considerable opposition and bullying just for being himself. This book won the American Library Association award for best young adult novel of the year in 2007. And deservedly so. In fact it should be mandatory reading in all schools and all young adults should be required to give at least one presentation in drag ... I'd encourage teachers to join in. The author's voice is charged with energy, humour and compassion. I loved this book. When I read, I often underline parts in books that I like - by the end of this read, "Freak Show" was covered in pink and green highlights - well, it matched the cover. I defy you to read this book and not land up questioning your wardrobe!

Why I hate James St James ... in a good way
I can tell you categorically, and with no small degree of bitterness, that James St James makes me SICK. Sick because he is so wretchedly talented and his words just flow off the pages. Yeah, OK, so he's no Keats or Shakespeare or Orwell, but his colloquial language and the sheer energy he injects into his prose makes it seem like an old friend has come to visit and tell you an exciting story. It's like he's so full of it that he can't get the words out fast enough and he keeps laughing and forgetting stuff and "OHMYGOD, you just won't believe the next bit" while flapping his hands in the air. You simply can't WAIT to get to the next paragraph, but you have to keep stopping cos you're laughing so much.

Freak Show is about a young boy who goes to school in the city where he is a cheerful and popular outsider. Then he gets sent to live with his father in Hicksville where he turns up at his new redneck school dressed as a pirate. The students are substantially unimpressed and a torrent of abuse rains down on him. The abuse continues so he ponders, well, what the hell ... I might as well go to school as a drag queen. Of course he gets the sh*t kicked out of him and, well, I don't want to spoilt the plot ... it's basically an outsider makes good story but with a not-too-schmaltzy ending. Not everything goes according to plan

I worry that the cultural references will limit the longevity of the story, like describing somebody's failure as, "(she) totally Britney'ed, y'all", but I marvel at his ability to engage the reader. I love the brilliance of telling us all to "WAIT! STOP! HOLD IT RIGHT THERE! Nobody read another page! You there! Hands off the book! Put your reading glasses on the ground where I can see them!" All this because he's told us a lie and his conscious won't let him continue. I could positively weep at the cleverness.

If you've loved Augusten Burroughs or David Sedaris, you should totally check out this slick b*stard. Then we can form a vigilante group, hunt him down and kill him.

Love hate relationship
It took me a while to get into this book, just because of the style, which is basically a queenish young man who love to dress in outrageous clothes, talking to you as though he was sitting infront of you, hands failing about and jumping up and down in his seat.

I did find that throughout this book I loved and hated the main character, but this made it all the more real, as you cant always like someone and it shows that St James has made a charater three dimentional, which is what we all want, isnt it?

I would recommend this book to anyone who reads the decription (or from the US site) and likes it. Dont quibble, just do it, and give it about 30 pages, and you'll not want to put it down! I do admit it took about that for me to get into it, but after that I read the remainer in a matter of hours.

Excellent book!