What do you think?
Rate this book
Sideshow Pi: The Devil's Garden
New Ramoth. A city covered in scar tissue, where survival of the fittest decides who's on top and crime is the only promotion system. Enter Eddie "Dog Boy" Gnash, ex-carnival freak turned private investigator. Now the bodies are piling up, and the fate of New Ramoth rests in the hands of this fur-covered freak- Eddie Gnash, Sideshow P.I. "Nathaniel Lambert and Kevin Sweeney have worked seamlessly to create a page-turning powerhouse of a book. Vivid and brilliant, SIDESHOW P.I. is a must-have for any horror/bizarro collection." Rio Youers, author of EVERDEAD and END TIMES "A fun read all the way through. Better than Arnzen's Licker and I read it cover to cover. This was very intelligently written, humorous, well paced, and beautifully edited." D.W. Green, author of KIM CHI FLYING FISH
166 pages, Paperback
First published August 17, 2009
1 person is currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Sweeney
50 books139 followersSweeney is an infamous author of bizarro and extreme horror.
BANNED from sale on Amazon, his now notorious series of novellas known as THE SEVIIN SICK SINS, as well as the splatter-porno-western serial THE WHOREHOUSE THAT JACK BUILT, can be found exclusively over at indie horror platform Godless.com.
Titles available on Amazon include THE GARDEN GNOME (described by one reviewer as being like "Night at the Museum... if the exhibits wanted to rape and kill you"); THE CROP CIRCLE (a story which gave another reviewer the most horrible nightmare of his life); and THE LOLLIPOP MAN, a British slasher with a pitch-black heart of humour.
Forthcoming titles include THE SHOPPING LIST, an apocalyptic tale of generational incest and cannibalism, and FEE FI FO FUM.
BANNED from sale on Amazon, his now notorious series of novellas known as THE SEVIIN SICK SINS, as well as the splatter-porno-western serial THE WHOREHOUSE THAT JACK BUILT, can be found exclusively over at indie horror platform Godless.com.
Titles available on Amazon include THE GARDEN GNOME (described by one reviewer as being like "Night at the Museum... if the exhibits wanted to rape and kill you"); THE CROP CIRCLE (a story which gave another reviewer the most horrible nightmare of his life); and THE LOLLIPOP MAN, a British slasher with a pitch-black heart of humour.
Forthcoming titles include THE SHOPPING LIST, an apocalyptic tale of generational incest and cannibalism, and FEE FI FO FUM.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 9, 2013
I'm craving Death in the Afternoon!
I reeeeeeeally liked this book. I am a sideshow FREAK! Wait, that should be I'm a FREAK for sideshows! I'll tell you more later, I have a drink to mix, and some detectivating to do.
I reeeeeeeally liked this book. I am a sideshow FREAK! Wait, that should be I'm a FREAK for sideshows! I'll tell you more later, I have a drink to mix, and some detectivating to do.
December 2, 2012
Un libro bizarro, con sangre, tripas y otras secreciones. Me gustaron los personajes aunque creo que pudieron haberse desarrollado más. El final se me hizo parecido al de otro libro de Nathaniel Lambert: The Horribles. Si es un libro que no tendrá secuelas pienso que se queda a medias, porque la premisa de los freaks que se establecen en una nueva ciudad, cada quien con sus pecularidades (especialmente Eddie Gnash, investigador privado por correspondencia) pueden dar para muchas historias entretenidas y raras. Me recordó un poco a John Dies at the End, aunque este no tiene tanto humor; me recordó en el tipo de historia bizarra y gráfica.
Espero que Nathaniel Lambert escriba más sobre SideShow PI.
Espero que Nathaniel Lambert escriba más sobre SideShow PI.
March 17, 2010
It’s always nice to see two weird writers joining forces to create a single project. Sideshow P.I. is like that. Both authors—Nathaniel Lambert and Kevin Sweeney—have melded their prose together seamlessly, a great accomplishment even if they didn’t live in separate countries. Sideshow P.I. is great noir bizarro, told with two voices that mix together and shift around, creating an amorphous rhythm that perfectly fits this weird world.
The setting is New Ramoth, a carnival-themed dystopia crawling with voodoo, whores, clones, corrupt corporations, and vicious gangs. This is the place the freaks go after all the freak shows have shut down, and it’s become the real Sin City. Any carnal desire can be sated here, or you might wind up dead in an alleyway. It happens. The things they do in New Ramoth would make every Vegas showman wet his pants in fear. It’s a futuristic cesspool of garbage, rotted corpses, and acid rain. In other words, it’s the perfect setting for a gritty noir tale.
Our detective is Eddie Gnash, who once performed in the carnivals as the dog-boy but now finds a new calling as a private investigator. I loved Eddie. He keeps the old-school detective archetype, hard-nosed and able to handle anything, but he’s also got a flair for sarcasm and escaping dangerous spots by the skin of his teeth. He’s like Sam Spade mixed with Han Solo and covered in fur. And as Eddie tries to solve the case of the dead johns, he digs into one of New Ramoth’s many corrupt little secrets. If a city of grotesque freaks wasn’t bad enough, something worse is bubbling under the surface: monsters.
Like Gina Ranalli said in the introduction, I hope to see more stories set in this world. I want to see Eddie’s further adventures and catch up to his colorful supporting cast of circus freaks. It’s a perfect blend of freakshow style, hard cyberpunk noir, and psychedelic monsters. The ending becomes a whirlwind of extreme sex and violence done in true bizarro style. Sideshow P.I. has built an extremely vivid and unique world in New Ramoth. It’s a gory freakshow that’s worth the ticket price.
The setting is New Ramoth, a carnival-themed dystopia crawling with voodoo, whores, clones, corrupt corporations, and vicious gangs. This is the place the freaks go after all the freak shows have shut down, and it’s become the real Sin City. Any carnal desire can be sated here, or you might wind up dead in an alleyway. It happens. The things they do in New Ramoth would make every Vegas showman wet his pants in fear. It’s a futuristic cesspool of garbage, rotted corpses, and acid rain. In other words, it’s the perfect setting for a gritty noir tale.
Our detective is Eddie Gnash, who once performed in the carnivals as the dog-boy but now finds a new calling as a private investigator. I loved Eddie. He keeps the old-school detective archetype, hard-nosed and able to handle anything, but he’s also got a flair for sarcasm and escaping dangerous spots by the skin of his teeth. He’s like Sam Spade mixed with Han Solo and covered in fur. And as Eddie tries to solve the case of the dead johns, he digs into one of New Ramoth’s many corrupt little secrets. If a city of grotesque freaks wasn’t bad enough, something worse is bubbling under the surface: monsters.
Like Gina Ranalli said in the introduction, I hope to see more stories set in this world. I want to see Eddie’s further adventures and catch up to his colorful supporting cast of circus freaks. It’s a perfect blend of freakshow style, hard cyberpunk noir, and psychedelic monsters. The ending becomes a whirlwind of extreme sex and violence done in true bizarro style. Sideshow P.I. has built an extremely vivid and unique world in New Ramoth. It’s a gory freakshow that’s worth the ticket price.
July 27, 2012
Sideshow PI is an acquired taste. The tale of a group of sideshow freaks who have settled down in New Ramoth, a seedy city on the edge of a clone recycling plant, it's rude, crude and disgusting. It's almost like the characters want reader to know they deserve to be society's outcasts, for more than just their deformities. Eddie Gnash is the wolf-boy parental figure that kept them all together. After a long depression on ending the show Eddie rediscovers himself by becoming a P.I. And helping his friend Cletus hunt down whoever is killing johns on the city streets.
Sideshow PI boasts some amazing writing, splendid wrapping on a decent package. Sometimes the vivid vivisections and sex get carried away, distracting even the characters from the plot. And again, it's best for readers who love extreme horror and wallowing in the ultra-pits of human despair.
Contains: sex, violence, rape, mutations, cannibalism
Sideshow PI boasts some amazing writing, splendid wrapping on a decent package. Sometimes the vivid vivisections and sex get carried away, distracting even the characters from the plot. And again, it's best for readers who love extreme horror and wallowing in the ultra-pits of human despair.
Contains: sex, violence, rape, mutations, cannibalism
July 16, 2010
I enjoyed this book a lot. Fun premise, freak show characters in a crime novel setting. Lots of bizarro elements, lots of violence... what's not to like?
Seriously though, the best points of this book are the rich and interesting characters.
Seriously though, the best points of this book are the rich and interesting characters.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews