Rating: 
Summary: No Love for Geek Love
Review: I read this book because it was chosen by my book club. After hearing so many great reviews about this book I could hardly wait to get started reading it. Unfortunately, after finishing the book, I was extremely disappointed in its lack of purpose and meaningful statement - what ever point this author was attempting to make totally escaped me. After reading this book I am only left with an empty feeling of what this author could have done with such a highly imaginative story line and creative characterizations. Yes, it's true, Dunn did come up with a great idea for a story and she created some fascinating characters - my problem is - I just don't see that she used her creative imagination well enough to develop a true sense of story that communicated a message to me as a reader. I'm still pondering what the heck, if anything, was she trying to say? I was even hoping to get a clue from some of the customer reviews posted on this site. Unfortunately, all I hear are great recommendations due to the horrifying scenes and grotesqueness of the book. I'm still waiting to hear someone tell me what purpose it all served.I have no problem reading disturbing subjects and characters - but, I do expect there to be a reason and message behind the disturbance. I found no message to Dunn's story, other than the fact that she has attempted to do the same thing as her characters - capitalize on creating "freaky" and disgusting characters who serve no purpose other than fascinating readers simply because of their abnormalities. As I'm writing this review, it just occurred to me that perhaps the message is that if you like this book, then perhaps you are like one of the "Norms" in her book who would pay a pretty penny just to gawk and point at (or read about) carnival freaks.
Rating: 
Summary: A Classic -- Strangely Gothic, eerie, but worldy
Review: "Geek Love" is on my top 10 list of favorite books; it is truly a lterary masterpiece right up there with Shelly's "Frankenstein". I read it the year it won the book award and it has haunted me since. I remember reading the first page and putting it down for about two months and thinking "What the devil is this?". I finally picked it up, got past the first few pages (she must have had writer's block during these pages) and was thoroughly hooked after that. The novel reminds me a lot of Flannery O'Connor's work, particularly "Wise Blood." The story is at once believable and fantastic, yet it is, in parts, quite touching.
Rating:
Summary: Better than Anna Karenina!
Review: Tolstoy's classic is famous for its opening sentence about all unhappy families being different, and all happy ones being alike. Had Tolstoy still been around to read Geek Love, I'm not sure he would have felt that way. At its heart this is a simple story of a totally dysfunctional family -- our narrator, Olympia (a hunchbacked albino dwarf) spends much of the book musing on how relatively uninteresting she is, compared with her much more impressively carnivalistic family. Along the way Dunn deals with sibling rivalry, sexual violence, animal rights (including about the creepiest nurse/doctor character in all of literature), and -- best of all -- religious cultism. It's not a book for everyone; there are a handful of terribly ghastly moments in it. But overall, it's strongly written, incredibly poignant, and often hilarious. If I could take ten books onto a desert island, this would be one of them.
Rating:
Summary: An Escape From Reality to the Truth
Review: Through this exotic and breathtaking novel about a carnie family, Dunne reveals a world that is unbelievable. Not only are the characters physically challenged by societal norms, they are also challenged by the everyday emotions and feelings typical of being human. By submerging the reader into the "sub-human" characters, the reader is better able to safely examine his/her ideals about relationships concerning family, love, and friendships. It is through the vehicle of the weird and unusual that Dunne enables the reader to escape one's reality in pursuit of one's truth. Geek Love is a deep novel and definitely not for the weary.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing, beautiful--will keep you thinking for days
Review: If only more books could be like this. Circus freaks, incest, self-mutilation, prostitution, dysfunctional families--all wrapped up in one none-too-tidy package that sticks in your brain like apple skin between your molars. Amazing for the depth of its characters and the unique perspectives on humanity and obsession. Wonderful. Buy it as soon as you can.
Rating:
Summary: My all-time favorite book
Review: I have read GEEK LOVE 4 times and it is almost time for another reading. Every time I read this book I find something new that blows me away. Katherine Dunn creates characters that are so full of life that you might as well give up, crawl into bed for a couple days, and commit yourself to this incredible tale of- ultimately- love. My only question is- when will Dunn write again?
Rating: 
Summary: Very Unique and Interesting!
Review: This book is totally different than any other book that I have ever read. It gives you a glimpse inside a very dysfunctional family that owns ad works with a travelling carnival. The character development is great. If you think your family is weird... you should read about this one!
Rating:
Summary: The best book ever!
Review: I don't need to write 3 paragraphs to tell you this book is excellent. Buy it, read it and read it again, you will love it. Unlike any book ever written.
Rating:
Summary: kooky and wonderful
Review: I ran across this novel on a shelf when it was first released and ended up sitting in the corner reading it for hours...too engrossed to pause for a trip to the register. This book is an odd one, but a sentimental favorite for me, and the story while ostensibly about carnival freaks is really about the human consequences of a culture organized around the spectacle.
Rating:
Summary: Review for Dunn's Geek Love
Review: The title was enough to sell me on the book at first. I have always been interested in what people call freaks or the transmundane as i often like referring to them. The idea of a family breeding their own batch of abnormal children to profit the family carnival was my cup of tea. I should have known it was too good to be true. I really did not find one character likeable throughout the novel. Not even the spineless little "heroine", Miss Oly. The Aurturo character was even worse. I could not buy that this spiteful, mean spirited creature was the focus of affection for many of the other characters. If i am reading about circus freaks and their lives i want to do just that. i want to be entertained by these abnormals. my major problem was with the Aqua boy and how he obviously needed something, someone but was unwilling to sacrifice any thing of himself, including just a bit of his enormous ego. And his sisters and family just put up with it. Unbelievable. I just couldn't suspend my belief long enough to be captivated by outlandish scene after another. I know we're dealing with an outlandish scenario but the plot and character's actions need to be believable as well. the book promises a lot from the jacket but just doesn't deliver, especially those who are long time fans of the carnival midway acts themselves. don't get me wrong, dunn had her poetic, literary moments throughout but without too much else, including just awful characters, to save the novel in and of itself.
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