ONE OF US, solid well-crafted not-too-gory horror vibes read

ONE OF US
DAN CHAON
Henry Holt & Co. (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$14.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A playfully macabre and utterly thrilling tale about orphaned twins on the run from their murderous uncle who find refuge in a bizarre traveling carnival, from master of literary horror Dan Chaon.

It’s 1915 and the world is transforming, but for thirteen-year-old Bolt and Eleanor—twins so close they can literally read each other’s minds—life is falling apart. When their mother dies, they are forced to leave home under the care of a vicious con man who claims to be their long-lost uncle Charlie, the only kin they have left. During a late-night poker game, when one of his rages ends in murder, they decide to flee.

Salvation arrives in the form of Mr. Jengling, founder of the Emporium of Wonders and father to its many members. He adopts Bolt and Eleanor, who travel by train across the vast, sometimes brutal American frontier with their new family, watching as the exhibitions spark amazement wherever they go. There’s Minnie, the three-legged lady, and Dr. Chui, who stands over seven feet tall; Thistle Britches, the clown with no nose, and Rosalie, who can foretell the death of anyone she meets.

After a lifetime of having only each other, Eleanor and Bolt are finally part of something bigger. But as Bolt falls in deeper with their new clan, he finds Eleanor pulling further away from him. And when Uncle Charlie picks up their trail, the twins find themselves facing a peril as strange as it is terrifying, one which will forever alter the trajectory of their lives. An ode to the misfits and the marginalized, One of Us is a riotous and singularly creepy celebration of the strange and the spectacular and of family in its many forms.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: The dinner-party scene of Tod Browning's super unsettling 1932 film Freaks, only literatured to a fare-thee-well. It feels a little like those Victorian table skirts meant to keep the ladies ladylike and not inflamed with lust by...no one's ever been able to explain to me why women were supposed to be inflamed by a lathe-turned leg not a well-turned calf or a muscular thigh.

What stands out to me in this read is the appalling nastiness of the carnival/family unit's audiences, gawking at people for being different. Those different, often very different, people are Author Chaon's focus to the exclusion of more than...I would say "desultory" but it's so pejorative...unhurried action for half or more of the book. What that allows for is the kind of horror I most enjoy to build. There are no Big Scary Monsters or weird, spooky Happenings...there are people, not ruled by logic, being unpredictable and unnervingly cruel; there are the twins at the heart of the tale learning about and deploying their own difference as defense against ugly human greed. The consequences of that ugly human greed are what ultimately drive them, in despairing desperation, to run from their lives.

Ironically they run into their lives, their purpose, by doing this. Their place, their home, their haven. Like all havens, though, there are shadows. These shadows menace everyone in their found family. Eleanor can't really settle in among the freaks, feels herself different even among the different; Bolt has found his place, made his home, aligned with these freakshow folk to stand against the uneasy-making shadow of...whatever. It is always hard to see someone who's been part of you since you've had memories move away from your perspective, so Eleanor's struggles felt real and immediate to me, even while Bolt's sinking-in to the seductive group embrace we call "family" made all the sense in the world. He can finally feel that someone has his six.

The ending scenes of this book resolve the tensions that need resolution, while never being unfaithful to the creeping dread, the human-driven horror (with violence as its salt and pepper) that pervades the read. "Uncle" Charlie is just not going away with all he represents in the twins' lives (and the world at large they must navigate as Others); the release from threat dissipates some tension, but the World is still there...for me this was more the strange and spooky Carnivàle than the broader, flatter American Horror Story.

I found the author's note particularly enjoyable to read. Author Chaon delves a bit into some details of the inspirations for his story. It's a pleasure to have because I was thinking as I read the tale, "is this...did he...am I seeing...?" a lot. It ended up taking me from "this is a mixtape" to "how wonderful to have a creative mind that's inspired by so much."

I can't fill out that fifth star because I felt "Uncle" Charlie was, ironically enough, underplayed. His villainy was so thoroughgoing, ham it up even more, add a po-mo touch of self-aware baroque Javert-ness. As it is, he takes a lot of emotional real estate up with rather a flat affect.

Also either make the book a little longer (my choice) or move up the twins' running away sooner. A little too unbalanced; therefore feels rushed in that last third. But folks, this pleasure of a read very much deserves a shot at your TBR for #Deathtober!