Freakslaw

by Jane Flett

Overview

“THIS BOOK IS EVERYTHING . . . an ode to Tod Browning’s Freaks, Kathryn Dunn’s Geek Love, and Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes . . . Grotesque, creepy, and celebratory, Freakslaw is sure to be one biggest books of the year (and possibly, one of the defining novels of the century).” —CrimeReads

An LGBTQ Reads Most Anticipated 2025 • A CrimeReads and Goodreads Most Anticipated Horror Novel of 2025 • A Storizen and Read Jump Scares Best Horror Book of April 2025 • An Autostraddle Most Anticipated Queer Book of April 2025

In this riotous horror debut, a traveling carnival of troublemakers arrive in a small Scottish town and perform their favorite pastime: revenge.

It is the summer of ‘97 and the repressed Scottish town of Pitlaw is itching for change.

Enter the Freakslaw—a travelling carnival of deviant queers and architects of mayhem. There’s Gloria, fortune teller and worm charmer; her daughter Nancy, a contortionist witch; big-hearted tightrope walker, Werewolf Louie; not to mention illusionists and conjoined twins, Cass and Henry, and tattooed human pincushion, the Pin Gal. Against Pitlaw’s miserably grey landscape, the carnival shines electric and bright, and it doesn’t take long for the town’s teenagers to be seduced by its neon charms and the possibility of escape.

But beneath it all, these newcomers are harboring a darker desire: revenge. Revenge for being cast out, never allowed to settle, punished for purely existing. And as tensions reach fever pitch between the stoic, unwelcoming locals and the dazzling intruders, a violence that has been bubbling for centuries is about to be unleashed . . .

Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love meets Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus in this sizzling debut by a writer as captivating as she is incisive, as wild as she is precise. Read this and try not to run away with the Freakslaw. Go on. We dare you.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781638932666
Publisher:	Zando
Publication date:	04/01/2025
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Jane Flett is a Scottish writer who lives in Berlin. Her fiction has been commissioned for BBC Radio 4, featured in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, Highly Commended in the Bridport Prize and performed at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. She’s a recipient of the Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award, the New Orleans Writing Residency and the Berlin Senate Stipend for non-German literature. Freakslaw is her first novel.

Editorial Reviews

02/10/2025

Scottish author Flett debuts with a grotesque tale of a freak show carnival out for blood. In the summer of 1997, the Freakslaw traveling carnival sets up camp in the Scottish town of Pitlaw, seeking revenge for the murder of witches there 400 years before. Among the carnies is teenage witch Nancy, whose first diabolical act is to put a hex on teenage punk rocker Ruth MacNamara, who desperately wants to leave Pitlaw. Under Nancy’s magical influence, Ruth dances euphorically with the carnies and has sex with one of the show’s strongmen. Meanwhile, amusement ride operator Zed falls for teen Derek Geddes. Derek’s violent and heavy-drinking father, Boyd, hates the carnival, and after Nancy attacks a friend of his, more violence ensues. The recurring plot device of characters being coerced into sex grows repetitive and will disturb some readers, though the prose is often arresting (“What’s really called for is proper sacrifice. Slaughter. A red mist raining down like early-morning dew,” Nancy muses). Fans of Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love should snap this up. Agent: Alexis Hurley, InkWell Management. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

An LGBTQ Reads Most Anticipated 2025 • A CrimeReads and Goodreads Most Anticipated Horror Novel of 2025 • A Storizen and Read Jump Scares Best Horror Book of April 2025 • An Autostraddle Most Anticipated Queer Book of April 2025

“Blending supernatural horror, queer fiction, and magical realism, Flett’s debut showcases an eclectic cast of characters both beautifully bizarre and emotionally real. Fans of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes will love the carnival atmosphere, but Flett’s striking story is less about good versus evil and more about the predictable comfort of conformity versus the desire to be one’s true self.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Holy hell, I loved this book. A carnivalesque tale spun in luscious, crackling prose, Freakslaw is the glittery punk offspring of Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love and Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus. You know those books you want to roll around in, rub on your skin, and clasp to your heart? Freakslaw is one, and I can’t wait to see what Jane Flett does next.” —Chelsea G. Summers, author of A Certain Hunger

“THIS BOOK IS EVERYTHING . . . an ode to Tod Browning’s Freaks, Kathryn Dunn’s Geek Love, and Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes . . . Grotesque, creepy, and celebratory, Freakslaw is sure to be one biggest books of the year (and possibly, one of the defining novels of the century).” —CrimeReads

“A crackling, subversive horror debut . . . this is a carnival you won’t escape unscathed.” —Storizen

“Freakslaw is a nonstop freaky, witchy, outlaw, glamour misfit fantasy—adventure fantasy, sex fantasy, revenge fantasy. Geek Love meets American Horror Story meets The Craft meets John Waters. I’d kill to run away with this circus.” —Michelle Tea, author of Modern Tarot

“A grotesque tale of a freak show carnival out for blood . . . Fans of Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love should snap this up.” —Publishers Weekly

“Delightfully dark and experimental, a celebration of the wild pleasures of living in the world and in every variety of human body . . . In a deeply satisfying build of sex, violence, and mayhem, the novel descends into a kind of spiritual war between our animal—perhaps even magical—natures and the strictures placed upon them by society and the self.” —Electric Lit

“Shines like neon, buzzes like a chorus of funfair bulbs—Freakslaw is a riot! To all the oddballs and beautiful freaks, this book is scrumptious vindication.” —Gerardo Sámano Córdova, author of Monstrilio

“Visceral. There are no details left to the imagination, all the blood and guts, hate and joy on full display. The Freakslaw is a place for outcasts to find their voices, and Flett has certainly displayed hers as she welcomes readers to her powerful imagination. A fearsome, hopeful, cautionary tale of otherness, hatred, and rebirth.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A stampede of literary brilliance, a riot of filthy delinquency” —Victoria Gosling, author of Before the Ruins

“Fans of stories about characters seeking belonging and their true selves will fall into the world Flett has created. Readers who enjoyed Seanan McGuire’s Deadlands: Boneyard or the anthology Carniepunk will also find much to appreciate here.” —Library Journal

From the Publisher

02/21/2025

DEBUT The Scottish village of Pitlaw is oppressively joyless and stagnant, and teenage residents Ruth and Derek spend the summer of 1997 dreaming of being somewhere else and having different lives. Then Pitlaw is visited by the queer traveling carnival Freakslaw, transforming a field is into a sparkling, magical place filled with chaotic energy. Soon, the local residents are feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the vibrant, sensual pleasures of the carnival, while the outsiders harbor a desire for revenge for past wrongs, both of which threaten to bring violence to everyone. In Flett's debut novel, the banality of everyday life in Pitlaw is contrasted with the colorful magic of the carnival. As the story develops, the barrier between the two worlds is thinned. The found family of those for whom Freakslaw is a place where they can belong, just as they are, will draw many readers in. VERDICT Fans of stories about characters seeking belonging and their true selves will fall into the world Flett has created. Readers who enjoyed Seanan McGuire's Deadlands: Boneyard or the anthology Carniepunk will also find much to appreciate here.—Lila Denning

Library Journal

2025-03-22
A traveling sideshow and a conservative town clash in late 1990s Scotland in this debut novel.

The Freakslaw rolls into Pitlaw one afternoon, showcasing its collection of misfits and weirdos to the town’s conservative (and repressed) residents. The group sets up shop in an old abandoned field and gets to work setting up tents. The locals say there’s no way they’ll attend, but as the freaks make their way into town, the residents’ curiosity is heightened, and some find themselves drawn in when the show finally opens. But there is fury in the soil in Pitlaw, a deep-seated rage passed down through the centuries that doesn’t like its town being messed with. The show’s stop in Pitlaw will change the townspeople forever, but the question is whether it will be for good or ill. Flett has created an incredibly physical world full of magic and consequences. There’s a character list at the beginning of the novel and, indeed, there are almost too many people to keep track of, between the various denizens of both the carnival and the town. While the most important ones stand out—Nancy, the young witch of the carnival; Zed, the free-spirited waltzer boy; Ruth, the no-nonsense teen determined to get out of Pitlaw; Derek, the quiet boy stuck under his father’s thumb—there are so many that it becomes hard to keep track of them as the chapters dance back and forth between the magical misfits and the staid townsfolk. The action paces ever onward to an ultimate conflagration, and the writing is visceral. There are no details left to the imagination, all the blood and guts, hate and joy on full display. The Freakslaw is a place for outcasts to find their voices, and Flett has certainly displayed hers as she welcomes readers to her powerful imagination.

A fearsome, hopeful, cautionary tale of otherness, hatred, and rebirth.

Kirkus Reviews