A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

Liza, an African-American woman with a poorly-controlled psychic ability to talk to and control animals, gets a job in a traveling carnival with a dark secret. The book is set during the Depression, and all but one of the important characters are African-American or African.

In other words, this book hits several of my favorite subgenres at once: circuses and carnivals, people with psychic abilities, animals, and historical stories about minorities that are not primarily about oppression.

Racism is an important theme, and a big part of why the carnival is such a refuge and why people are willing to look away from things they don't want to see to keep it going. However, being African or African-American is important in a lot of other ways as well, and there's a lot going on that isn't about racism. Things like family, ancestry, magic, moral choices, were-hyenas, creepy weirdos with grass for skin, and dancing turtles.

The characters are all flawed/morally grey, but interesting and complex and often very likable. The choices they make are generally grey because they're trying to protect one person at the expense of someone else, not because they're cruel or want to hurt anyone. (Demons and a few others excepted.)

This would make a GREAT TV series - Carnivale meets Lovecraft Country. I really hope it happens.

It has some first-novel flaws. Some of the plotting/pacing is shaky, and the ending is both extremely abrupt and quite strange. I can't say it's a bad ending, as it does some things I liked a lot, and it doesn't spoil the book at all, but it could have been a lot better.

I will put up a second post later to discuss the ending specifically. There was an aspect of it that I want to talk about because it was SO BATSHIT, but the book deserves better than to have all discussion taken over by literally one sentence in the last chapter.

Leaning into premise: A+. The carnival is central and vivid and great. Psychic powers and magic and animals and race/ancestry are very important.

WARNING: Child harm, animal harm (both non-graphic, but central to the story). Liza's ability can accidentally kill the animals she's trying to talk to, and a child-eating demon is the main villain.

Bacchanal