Number 38 - The Pilo Travelling Show - Will Elliott

 

Last year I read the Pilo Family Circus, a surreal, grotesque and frankly quite hilariously disturbing book about the strangest circus you could imagine. It seemed to end quite definitively, but that didn't stop Will Elliott writing the sequel.

And boy am I glad he did. 

This is just as good as last year's offering, going deeper into the lore of the Pilo circus, but still leaving those explanations loose enough that we don't get disappointed with them. Sometimes trying to absolutely explain everything can get in the way of a good story. Elliott trusts his readers to fill in around the edges.

Jamie, the reluctant clown recruited in book 1 is once more dragged into the strange world of freaks, clowns and powdered souls. There's been a change in management in the circus since the events of the last book, and chief clown Gonko isn't happy. What follows is a series of plots,  double and triple crosses involving horrific violence, slapstick and more twists than a twisty thing.

There are scenes that are truly disgusting (in a good way - this is a horror novel after all) and others that are laugh out loud funny.  One of the reviews on the back cover compares this to a cross between David Lynch and Chuck Palahniuk, and that's a fair comparison. This is brilliantly surreal, compulsively readable and unlike anything I've read before (except for the first book in this series).

It's available through most good booksellers, but you really do need to read the Family circus first or this will be entirely incomprehensible. 

Once again, this is one of the highlights of the year.