Freakslaw by Jane Flett

(Doubleday, 2024)

Reviewed by Allen Stroud

Freakslaw by Jane Flett is an interesting novel. In 1997, the carnival comes to the Scottish town of Pitlaw, disrupting the italic boredom of the residents, providing a source of intriguing excitement for younger characters like Ruth MacNamara. The travellers are exotic, strange and confrontational. There is a magic about them that manifests in moments of danger, there is a sense they are not limited by the everyday concerns of the locals.

Flett’s writing navigates a careful line. The magical exotic nature of the carnival never strays into endorsing prejudice. However, her story does reveal it and describe it as the two communities interact with one another. There is a clear connection between this story and Ray Bradbury’s, Something Wicked this Way Comes. The subject material is similar, although Flett’s work is set in an English town, rather than rural America.

The similarities of subject are not the only identifiable commonalities. Flett is writing in third-person present, bringing an immediacy to the events that feels reminiscent of Bradbury’s prose. The chapters are small, quickly moving between characters and scenes, creating a tapestry of fragments. In some senses this could be writing for a contemporary reader who wants to dip in and dip out, reading between tasks or other projects that command their attention. More pivotal moments are given additional pages and were big, but there is a sense of collage in the way in which the writing spreads out of the narrative. Our opportunity to glimpse a variety of different lives remains shallow for some characters but becomes deeper and more interesting with others who we return to frequently. Ruth, for example is both an archetypal awkward teenage girl and an interesting and unique character, who is pulled like a moth towards the carnival flame. She runs, she tries to understand and master her own emotions. Her scenes, like many others, are confessionally intimate at times, as Flett explores the formative elements that make up her identity. The meaningful is explored with no cypher or censor.

That said, the central character that all things revolve around is the carnival itself. The carnival characters become something greater by being part of a large diverse community. They are not the titular ‘freaks’ of Tod Browning’s controversial 1932 film. Instead, Flett is doing something much more interesting and virtuous. Here is a portrayal of the other that is revealed to be human and humanised through each chapter in the story. The abrasion of agendas between the carnival and Pitlaw’s residents is both unconscious and intentional. There is a sinister quality to what is going on and what will happen. The story implies monstrousness, but continually humanises, doing something very different on its rollercoaster ride towards the inevitable confrontation and conclusion.

As urban horror fantasy, Freakslaw is amongst the best and most original of works I have read in recent times. There is something different going on here in Flett’s storytelling and that can be both instructive and essential.

Review from BSFA Review 24 - Download your copy here.