Rating: 
Summary: starts off with characters, ends up with plot...
Review: ...and that's sad because the plot is contrived and falls flat. But lord almighty, this book picks you up by the throat and shakes you around a bit before it wanders off in search of dramatic endings.(Warning! Plot spoilers ahead!) The best reason to read this book is for the question it raises--just who is normal, and who is a monster? We are treated to several characters with varying degrees of physical and/or mental grotesqueness, but who is more of a freak--the siamese twins who draw crowds with their piano duets, or the unremarkable looking business woman who disfigures sexy girls so they can reach their full mental potential? It is also a pleasure to be privy to the kind of twisted sibling relationships that I used to think only John Irving could give us. Oly's narrative of her relationship with her adult daughter, Miranda's searching for her own ideas of normalcy--those scenes are incredibly poignant. But honestly, it was as if Katherine Dunn suddenly couldn't handle all these folks and literally decided to kill them off so she could finish up the book--it wasn't quite a deus ex machina finish of the carnival, more like a Chicky (the telekinetic youngest child) ex machina who was darn close to a deus figure I guess. What I am really mulling over though, is the subject of the title. The yearning for love that everybody has--all of these characters grapple with it, some successfully, some disasterously. That love is twisted into as many shapes as it possibly can be in this book, and we are left to puzzle it out. I think this would be a great book for a book group--the fact that the reviews are so split is testimony to that (aren't the best groups when there's heated disagreement?). I'm not sure how valuable it would be in a classroom unless it's a class that deals with issues of disablility or maybe an English comp class. I would highly suggest it to all whose eyes skim across folks with deformaties and handicaps--the girl with splayed legs, the bank teller with two fingers--and isn't that most of us? Geek Love will, if nothing else, open your eyes to different ways of considering the body beautiful.
Rating: 
Summary: Unclear
Review: This book bored me into another dimension. The plot and story line are summed up by the title. Oh how I wished I had stopped at that. The author introduces too many characters and not enough depth. You also need to enlist the FBI in order to locate the structure of this novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Manipulative and magical
Review: I picked up this book not knowing anything about it, and I feel that's the best way to go about reading it. Dunn puts her craft to good use and seductively pulls her reader into the lives of a carnival freakshow family. Once your reality is suspended, Dunn presents you with unbelievable circumstances and disturbing images that hardly phase because you have become so wrapped up in her story-- it's too unreal not to be real. However, the book is not merely a trick of fancy-- her tale is compelling and speaks of the abnormalities of the world beyond the circus tent.
Rating:
Summary: Lost and Found
Review: I read this book quite a few years ago and never forgot it. I must have recommended it to a friend and lent it out, only to never have it returned (surprise?). Although I couldn't remember the title, I've spent considerable time combing bookstore shelves trying to find it again, and part of the reason I couldn't find it was because the original green cover of the paperback version has been updated. Tonight I decided to check the web and I was thrilled to see that it is still in print. I'm ordering a second copy, of which I will NOT loan to anyone. I read the other reviews and I'm glad to see that so many others felt the same way I did about this book. It was wonderful and I can't wait to read it again!
Rating:
Summary: Geek Love and Purpose
Review: I would like to start out by saying that I love this book, not because of it being grotesque or horrifying, as seems to be the case in many of the reviews I have read, but because of the deep consideration that was given to every detail in the book. Every character's name has a significance. Every location name, similarly, has a reason. These reasons become apparent as you look at the book, and the result is even further depth in an already wonderful story. I saw one review where a reader was asking for a purpose, and I would like to venture the most obvious one of many. One of the constant and underlying themes in _Geek Love_ was that of personal reflection. Katherine Dunn was challenging the reader to think about who the -real- freaks are. Is it the girl with the tail dancing on stage? Or is it the people in the audience of the Glass House (another wonderfully chosen name) that were the real freaks as they gawked at her dancing? Overall, I have to say that this is one my favourite books. While I will be the first to say that there are people who would definitely not enjoy it, I think that for those that would be at all interested, it is definitely a winner.
Rating:
Summary: one of my favorite books
Review: I was SO disappointed when I finished reading this book. I wanted it to go on and on. The first 2 chapters were a little harder to get through, mainly because the writing is almost poetic, but once you get familiar with the tone of the book, you'll find it impossible to put down. Also, the transition from third person to first in the last chapters were a bit strained, but nothing that can't be overlooked providing the staggering beauty of the rest of the book. Get this book. You will not be sorry.
Rating: 
Summary: And she's a sports writer!!
Review: Lemme just try to give you the basic story for this book: A couple working at a circus fall in love and decide to raise a family while devoting their lives and love to the family circus. What better way to maintain this setting than to birth freaks? As the father makes new and more insane concoctions for the mother to drink/snort/eat during her pregnancies... the children are born as hoped for - as freaks. Not all survived, of course, hence the show trailer of preserved babies - the ones that didn't make it (yet they are also profitable for the circus). Believe it or not, the book is written smartly and realistically, and the characters actually become understandable to you. This is a loving family who all care about each other and respect their surroundings. Eventually, politics kick in, the children develop ideas of their own, the parents get weak... it's yet another amazing epic, but with characters you can't forget - even if you want to. I could have done without all of the recent narrative and the repetitive amount of corruption and deception by Arturo - hence the 4 stars instead of 5.
Rating:
Summary: Oddly Beautiful...
Review: I picked up this book on a whim and couldn't put it down until I was finished. The book, in it's manipulation of the revolting as spectacle, creates its own brand of beauty and logic. What strikes me most is how we as readers have an opportunity to see life after the carnival, not just during it. A most unexpected and unique take on the theme, "people make mistakes." I would highly reccommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: My favourite work of fiction
Review: The story is ceaselessly engaging, the characters all spin on axes between sainthood and demonia and the prose style embellishes these qualities. The structure is beautiful in its pacing - it keeps you expecting more and it ultimately delivers everything it promises. Arturo, Olympia, Chick and the rest of the Binewski's seem like ugly distant cousins - a frightening branch of your own family and their story is hideously beautiful and eerily personal.
Rating:
Summary: An Unforgettable Novel
Review: I'm a horror reader and heard so much about this book via a horror discussion list I belong to. This will have to be one of the best books I've ever read. I recommend it to people who want to be introduced into the genre. It's haunting, tragic, horrific, beautiful. I couldn't put it down. I cried at the end - I couldn't help myself. A poetic ending and the exact way I wanted to story to conclude. I now look at what we term "beautiful" in a different light and that sometimes being beautiful on the outside can be a disadvantage. I will never forget this tale - ever.
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