Hey guys! It’s book review time, and today I have an amazing book review and recommendation to share with you all!
Title: Circus Folk & Village Freaks
Author: Aparna Upadhyaya Sanyal
Genre: Poetry
Length: 156 pages
Rating: 5⭐ / 5⭐
Get your copy here: Amazon.com / Amazon.in / Vishwakarma Publishing
Description:
Meet the beautiful people of the Circus, and the freaks who live in the Village next to them. Mangled, jangled, misunderstood, all find place in the rich tapestry of this book.
Siamese twins separate to lose half a heart each, and find snake-man and tiger-taming lovers. A man bitten by a crocodile becomes a God, and a Devadasi woos the entire countryside with her culinary artistry.
Fates intertwined lead sometimes to tragedy, sometimes happy summits of fame. A clown finds his place in Hollywood and mute animals break unspeakable chains. A twisted man falls in love with a mirror and a white man is unmade by the Indian sun.
In this book are tales for every season and every reason. Tales of human depravity that take innocent lives, and of a murderers’ insanity that follows, a fitting revenge by nature, red in tooth and claw.
These stories are told in the form of narrative poems in rhyming couplets.
Look inside and you will find, you have been to this Village. Surely, you have been to this Circus too.
OtakuMeganeChan’s Review:
I chanced upon this book thanks to the author and am soo glad I did! This is one gem of a book you wouldn’t want to miss reading.
The book consist of 18 poems written so beautifully that you get goosebumps while reading them. Yes – goosebumps! Each line ends into such a wonderful twist and turn that you haven’t seen them coming at you.
They really are not your regular kind of poems. Each poem is so dark and humorous, you are left wondering and marvelling at them. And each poem has a closure like a story which doesn’t feel incomplete.
They talk about various strange persons from the circus and the nearby village – like the crocodile man, snake man, siamese twins, etc. They talk about love, loss, self love, greed, malice, and so on.
It’s like hearing their tales as a word of caution, legends or sung into a beautiful song by bards, makes it even more appealing.
It’s an wholesome read!
The poems rhyme beautifully, there are few words which you might have not stumbled upon earlier. The sentences don’t feel choppy.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I would recommend you all to give it a read. It’s worth your time and money!
Tip: Read the poems out loud, they feel better that way.
I would also like to thank the author for providing me the review copy!
(Pic courtesy: @that.fictionfandom.faerie on Instagram)
Otaku Megane-Chan 