Freakslaw

by Jane Flett, Caolinn Douglas (editor)

“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 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 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.

“Holy hell, I loved this book. A carnivalesque tale spun in luscious, crackling prose . . . You know those books you want to roll around in, rub on your skin, and clasp to your heart? Freakslaw is one.” —Chelsea G. Summers, author of A Certain Hunger

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Queer, Fiction, LGBT, Historical Fiction, Contemporary

368 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 20, 2024

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 is one half of the riot grrrl band Razor Cunts and a founder of Queer Stories Berlin. Freakslaw is her first novel.

Reviews

[Adam Yates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark, disturbing and visceral...
Think American Horror Story with a deep fried mars bar on top.

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

The half point off is because I wanted more. I wanted a longer book. Its not a bad criticism is it? I'd definitely read more by Jane Flett.

I loved this. It grabbed me right from the start and (appropriately) felt like an absolute roller coaster of a ride.

The story centres on the funfair that has come to the small Scottish town of Pitlaw. The Freakslaw has arrived to mess with the residents. They've come for fun, danger and for revenge. But is Pitlaw ready for them. Will the freaks go too far too fast amd who will pay the consequences.

The characters in this book are the stars. From the moment you meet Maria the Fat Lady sent to the local cafe to keep her weight up you know there's going to be a clash of cultures on an epic scale. The residents are most definitely not going to welcome the obese, the strange and the magical. In fact they're ready to teach them a lesson but there could be enough of the town lured by the lights and the glamour to tip the scales.

A great story with luminous characters. I'd highly recommend it. I looked forward to reading it and struggled to put it down. The end isn't what I expected at all. It just came way too soon.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for the advance review copy. Most appreciated.

[Elyse · Rating 2 out of 5]

it feels like a troma film

[K.J. Charles]

A carnival comes to a repressed Scottish town, all crab bucket, moral condemnation, and domestic violence, bringing queerness and fatness and disability and sex and chaos.

There were a lot of things to like here--good descriptions, very powerful sense of the stifling awfulness of Pitlaw, the toxic masculinity, the stifled or distorted lives of adults, and the teenagers' desperation to escape. I mostly liked as well that the carnival isn't all powerful and definitely isn't an unalloyed good: in particular Nancy's desire to be free and powerful is done off the back of ruining the lives of a lot of teenage girls who never did a damn thing to her.

That was, actually, where I parted company with this book: it gave me a really uncomfortable deep-down sense that Ruth, aged 16, somehow deserved to be punished for...wanting to do an accountancy course? not liking her sister's baby? being a bit middle class? It's weirdly nebulous but something about the savage kicking she gets through the course of the book really got under my skin. Meanwhile the teen boy equivalent gets forgiveness and a happy ending. Hmm.

[Mikey ಠ◡ಠ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was interested in the premise of this book but found the execution to be lacking. The number of characters we flip back and forth between felt too overwhelming and Nancy straight up got on my nerves. It’s such a bummer because I really wanted to stay engaged with this story but picking it back up always felt like such a chore. I never cared about any of the characters which is a shame because I think they’re interesting but something just felt like it was missing.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[♡ retrovvitches ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

absolutely unhinged!! these characters were so unique and unforgettable. this was insanely weird and depraved, and had a lot of good writing and horrifyingly good scenes. did i find it a bit confusing at times?? 100% but that could be more of a me problem. took me a minute to finish!!

[Stephen Frame · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short version: you need to read this.

Long version: seriously, you need to read this. It's the print version of a hot chocolate with cream, marshmallows and a double shot of vodka. Buy it. Borrow it from a friend, but don't give it back. You can always get another friend. You only get to read this for the first time once.

[Matt Milu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m always in for a carnival setting and a revenge story! However, I feel the underlying vibe of the book is to forgive others that have wronged you in order to truly set yourself free! 4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️! (Note: If abortion is a trigger for you, skip this book)

[Laurie (barksbooks) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sad to say that this story which sounded perfect for me turned out to be a dud for me instead. It was a book I should've dnf'd about 1/4 of the way in but instead I kept going hoping the writing style would finally click with me, but it absolutely did not. There are tons of characters and unfortunately, I was unable to get invested in any of their stories because it all felt so incredibly disjointed and a bit boring. There are some gross moments but nothing near what I'd call shocking or "riotous". It sort of comes together in the end, but at that point I just didn't care about any of it and I had to force myself through it.

I don't know if it was a case of me or the book, but I do know that this book and I didn't get along. I'll be sad about it for a while because I was hoping it would join a place next to Geek Love. I don't know what else to say here, except maybe read Geek Love if you haven't or reread it if you're aching for this type of story.

[Matty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a great time reading Jane Flett’s debut horror novel Freskslaw. It’s set in the summer of 1997 in a small Scottish town called Pitlaw, with the arrival of a traveling circus/freakshow. The town is ripe of with stagnation and has a dark history which the circus is out for revenge.

The story is told with alternating POV’s so you get to know the wide variety of characters. A fortune teller, the ring master, a wolf boy, a witch, strongmen, conjoined twins, and some of the residents of Pitlaw.

The story kept me engaged and touches upon all sorts of themes; self discovery, revenge, acceptance, toxic male masculinity, and personal freedom. It was a highly memorable read and I look forward to Flett’s future writing.

It’s a very relevant book given the current state of discrimination across the globe for those with disabilities, gender identities, and sexual preference. I have a physical disability myself so I can relate to some of the characters in the book. Five stars for this one. If you are in the mood for a creepy carnival story pick this novel up.

[Horror Nerd · Rating 1 out of 5]

At the core of this novel is such an intriguing concept: a carnival descends on a boring and repressed small town, there's a group of unique people bound together by a shared history & camaraderie, one group versus another in a battle that's likely to have happened many times before.
Except that's not really what "Freakslaw" turned out to be for me. All the carnie folk were written as such one dimensional people. Not a single one went beyond 'I want revenge and will take what I feel is owed to me', and not a single person was likeable at all (especially characters like Nancy). The town's people seemed to have just one defining characteristic to them and nothing else to make the reader care about any of them (with themes like repression, gullibility, domestic violence, graphic animal abuse, etc). No one in the book seemed to behave & react like a normal person as fiery showdown at the funfair concluded. The narrative would work if at least the ending wasn't so anti-climactic (nothing really changes, no one gets a true sense of justice, etc).

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book.

[Maja · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sexually explicit scenes featuring teenage characters are a no from me.

[Horror Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freakslaw is a surreal novel about a "freakshow" carnival which comes to a small Irish town and tells a story about magic, revenge, and acceptance of who you are.

The Freakslaw are a wonderfully varied group of performers who are more a family than anything. Featuring a wolf boy, a fat lady, a fortune teller, and a contortionist (among others) they pull into towns once a year with revenge on their minds. There's a magic realism at work as sins of the past are revealed and this troupe will exact their revenge.

But this town s filled with people who find these people disgusting. The town is steeped in bigotry and prejudices towards anyone different. While the 'freaks" are comfortable in their own skin and relish in who they are, this pisses the town folks off even more. This is going to lead to a battle that doesn't end well for many of them.

That's the basic plot but it doesn't do this book justice. It's a very well written piece of horror fiction and the writing style cements these scenes in your head. With queerness being the driving force and the town who rejects all they stand for outright, the battle lines are drawn.

Yet there are certain folks who find the allure of this carnival too much to resist. But is it because of the magic being done or because of their own desires and hidden secrets? The answer is both and that's where this book really shines.

With fantastic characters, a beautiful surreal narrative, and the ultimate sacrifices some must make before everything is lost, this novel makes for a great read. I highly recommend it.

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. This review is voluntary and is my own personal opinion.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the clerb, we’re all freaks, I guess. The writing was probably the best part of this because everything else was maybe too much. I thought more would be happening or maybe stuff did happen, and I just stopped caring. There were WAY too many characters. It literally starts off with like three pages of character information, which is when I knew. I literally saw that and sighed loudly. Almost all the characters were the worst, especially Nancy. The prose was also….to much at times. Trying too hard to hard to be edgy and weird. Overall, it wasn’t bad but not something I’ll be thinking about it.

[That Horror Chick · Rating 3 out of 5]

** I received an ARC copy from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review**

The vibes in this book were exactly right. The only vice I have with is that the huge amount of characters and the change in POV every chapter made it difficult to emotionally connect to the story. It had some really interesting bits, and there was plenty of foreshadowing to keep me speculating.

There are some very likable characters and there are some very unlikable characters. Freakslaw has you walking that thin line the whole time. It definitely takes you along for a journey. It would have been better to limit the amount of POV characters a little more, because it got confusing at times. But there definitely was a very interesting story there!

At times the writing style was a little odd, especially when I just started the book. It took me a while to get used to. But once I was, the book was much easier to read.

Overall an enjoyable read. Not great, but it entertained me more than enough!

[ritareadthat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone needs to go on a wild ride every now and again; this book will churn your stomach as you climb, and then drop from under you as you whoosh down that rollercoaster steep drop. An unforgettable ensemble of characters, sharp-witted details, and clever plotting make this a book you won't want to put down!

Freakslaw is the name of our side-show, traveling circus type cast of characters. The author has a handy index of characters listed at the beginning of the book (but I only had to reference it a couple times, she doesn't go too crazy with too many characters all at once) - but I consider our main protagonists to be Nancy (teenage witch), Zed (cute boy who runs rides), and then two of the town kids, Derek and Ruth. Everyone else is important to the story too, but these 4 characters contribute to the majority of the interesting plot.

I won't give too much away, but Freakslaw rolls into the town of Pitlaw (book is based in Scotland) and set up the "funfair", much to the disdain of the local townspeople. What ensues is all kinds of magic and trickery, lust, wrong decisions and a wham-bam ending.

The author was SUPERB with her wit and details. So descriptive but not in an "ok she is trying too hard" type of way. It progressed very naturally and it was an easy and fun read. I loved all of the characters. I think my only minor complaint is that the ending was a bit predictable, but that's kinda how I wanted it to end. I would have been angry, I think, if it would have ended differently.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the ERC!

[Fionn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rounded up from 1.5. Usually I think "never judge a book by its cover" acts as a warning to not judge a book too harshly, but here it definitely works the other way. This book was not good. Honestly, if James hadn't spent £10 on this for my Birthday I would have DNFd at about 15%. This overpromised and severely underdelivered, in some ways quite offensively. The premise sounded incredible, especially for someone like me who grew up on American Horror Story and absolutely binged the work of Alison Rumfitt last year. This sells itself as queer horror... yet neither of these things particularly feature. Its horror absolutely relies on trying to gross you out, in a way that is neither creative or interesting... or scary. I mean at all. For a book that is supposed to be about celebrating "queerness" too, I absolutely HATE that the trans character is such a stereotype. Relying on these stock characters and giving them absolutely no depth is not just lazy, it borders on offensive. Especially when writing about queer people who have been historically stereotyped and pigeonholed through literature. I get that this book is supposed to be about a "freakshow", but the characters deserve to have a little more meat on their bones. I feel like I learned more about the characters from the list of them all at the start than in the novel itself; this is a problem. The writing too is distracting - if an entire paragraph is made up of five seperate metaphors, that's too many metaphors. Same with similes - if they come every other sentence, I am not following. Sometimes things just are what they are - they don't need to always be "like" something else... especially if that thing is completely tonally distracting. When this came out as a 1.5, I wondered if I was being a bit too harsh but I stand by it. Maybe this is for other people, but it definitely is not for me.

[CJ Alberts]

I DNFd this 50% in which is kinda crazy lol. Literally a book made for me in a lab but just did not click for me. Perhaps lack of world building? Lots of talk of curses and something sinister happening but at 150 pages it nothing has happened lol. Idk life’s too short

[dessie*₊⊹ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a ‘You get it or you don’t’ kind of book but I feel like I’m smack dab in the middle. Maybe I just wanted to get it more than I did. It felt over-romanticized at times. The writing was a little too flowery, when I just wanted it to speak for itself.
The freakshow revenge premise really sparked an interest in me but I had to work for, and wait for, any payoff.
I can see many people loving this book and I can also respect the author’s intention with the story. I don’t really want to sway anyone from picking it up- I’d just tell you to expect a more liberating (at times, very gross) story about self expression and bigotry over a thriller/horror book.

[Quill&Queer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't you know that all the working class Scottish people do is be racist, drink at pubs and beat their wives? The author notes at the start of this book that she tried really hard to write a diverse group of people for the travelling funfair, and then proceeded to write a heinous, inaccurate caricature of common people.

[alunia · Rating 5 out of 5]

zakończenie trochę dla mnie za szybkie i szkoda, że nie było więcej ale i tak trafia do ulubieńców

edit: ogólnie to nie jest książka idealna i kilka rzeczy mogłoby być bardziej rozwiniętych jak na mój gust, teraz tak myślę, to mimo wszystko super się bawiłm biorąc pod uwagę, że jest to debiut autorki pod względem powieści
liczę na to, że jeśli zdecyduje się napisać coś jeszcze to będzie bardziej dopracowane i rozbudowane

[Krissi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave it a good try at 105 pages and I just couldn't do it anymore, unfortunately. The writing style is just odd, and when a book starts from chapter to chapter jumping to a different character each time with too many characters it's just too much. It sounded like it might turn out like Freak Show from American horror story which was my favorite season, but it's far from it.

[Marla Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

book’s fucking nuts

[Alexandra Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

YUM!

brb i’m running away to join the circus 🏃‍♀️🎪

[lids :) · Rating 2 out of 5]

was really hoping this novel would give me a similar emotional response to katherine dunn's geek love, but it didn't even come close /: surprisingly soulless for a book about freaks

[Kelsey Stanley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got half way through the book before I gave up. The number of characters was overwhelming and I could not keep track of them all. Unless the character has a brief description, each time such as a werewolf, I forgot who each person was. I was looking forward to reading this because it gave American Horror Story vibes, but it was a let down.

[India (IndiaReadsALot)]

DNF @ 39%

[Riley Kraabel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Huh

[Lea Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for the summer. Makes me want to go to the local fair and get …stabby 🔪🔪

[carlee · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐3.5/5
Let me just start with this book has me in a manic! Half of the time I was ready to DNF. But then whenever I saw it on my shelf, I just had to keep going. Just like the town of Pitlaw, I was couldn't stop Freakslaw from seducing me with it's wily charms and promises of pleasure.

So because this book has me reeling, I feel the need to explain my 3.5 star rating.

The book has an incredible and intriguing premise. A traveling funfair whose whole purpose it to go to repressed towns and cause chaos. LOVE!

But be prepared for a slow burn. The freaks of Freakslaw don't cause physical chaos but instead burrow into your mind and spin you round and round until you don't know what's up and what's down. Pitlaw residents didn't know what's about to hit them (and neither did I).

Very little actually happens in the book, which is where the slow of "slow burn" comes in. Basically, the funfair comes into town and sets up shop for a couple months. They receive a cold welcome from the townspeople, but not to worry, that's all part of the plan. Overtime, the townspeople's curiosity gets the better of them and they trickle in (unable to resist the odd charms and ways of the Freakslaw). We then follow several town characters and see the consequences of their curiosity and inability to refuse the hold that Freakslaw has on their mind (and bodies).

When this corruption has been unearthed by the folks who live a good conservative life (full of bigotry and prejudice), it picks up into an incredible "battle scene" between the normies and the freaks.

I can't say I hated the slow burn, but there were times I definitely felt it. Because we were getting multiple characters POV, the story could feel a bit stagnant.

Several times I almost set the book down for good due to several graphic scenes. I don't think I'm a prude, but there are just some things I don't want to read. I know these scenes have a larger purpose in the overall message/theme of the book, so I only took off half a star.

Another thing that kept me reading is Flett's writing. Holy cow this woman can write. If the writing hadn't been as good as it was, I probably would have set this on the DNF shelf.