Looking For a Good Book

It is 1915 and twins Bolt and Eleanor are on the run from an uncle that might just kill them both. They run into Mr. Jengling, the founder of the the Emporium of Wonders – a circus of oddities that travels across the often treacherous America. Despite the strangeness of many of those with the Emporium (there’s the three-legged woman; a clown with no nose; the woman who can foretell anyone’s death) Bolt and Eleanor find these people to be a family.

There’s more than just the oddness of the collective – there’s a darkness that hovers around the Emporium that strikes Eleanor as uncomfortable. Her brother, however, grows closer and closer to the group. This, itself, is uncomfortable for the girl – the pair have been as close as any pair of twins could possibly be. But now as they come of age they appear to be going their separate ways.

But when the uncle (who may or not actually be an uncle after all) is back on their trail and wanting them back to do his bidding, both Bolt and Eleanor will rely on the closeness of their new family, and their special abilities, to help protect them.

This is a beautifully written tale that captures a dark and foreboding mood which complements the oddness of the people who inhabit it.

In many ways this is a coming of age story, but it’s definitely much more than that as their growth includes accepting differences (to an extreme) in others, and how someone who might appear ‘normal’ can be so much more dangerous than those who appear frightening.

A circus is almost always a great way to capture a sense of wonder without a lot of heavy world-building, but this is so much more than your ‘typical’ circus (if a circus is ever typical).

Our twin central characters are perhaps the least well drawn of all our characters here. Eleanor does have the most growth, I think – Bolt is more immersive, but doesn’t seem to waver and then change too much. Still, I found Eleanor less interesting than most of the others here. Really I wanted to know more about everybody else. Everybody, including Uncle Charlie.

I really enjoyed the heaviness of the mood and the atmosphere as I read this. The characters were generally strong and interesting, but there was just a little something missing that’s hard to pinpoint to prevent me from going higher than four stars on this one.

Looking for a good book? One of Us by Dan Chaon is a dark, forebody YA coming of age story with plenty of oddities and danger to keep a YA audience interested.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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One of Us

author: Dan Chaon

publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

ISBN: 9781250175236

hardcover, 288 pages