Bought in a York charity shop a few days ago.

A tale of New York City just after the turn of the century. And also a tale of immigration, of freak shows (and who really are the monsters?), of women's rights, of class, of the repression and abuse of the working class, of how life was cheap... oh, and it all seems rather poignant somehow finishing reading it after the UK made such a bloody dumb decision at the polls two days ago.

In some ways I'd call this a bit of a gothic fairytale, although it's a nice one really even though it's about a freak show and murders and bad times. It's gothic because we have this wan, beautiful yet odd female lead, Coralie, who is utterley repressed by men (namely her father) and is unable to free herself from all of this until Eddie comes and rescues her from the house. Towards the end of the story I was a little disappointed that she hadn't developed a bit more gumption and managed to get herself out there, but nevermind. She is a freak, in that she has webbing between her fingers and a great affinity for water, thus she is a mermaid girl. She's raised by a sweet Irish woman, Maureen, who is disfigured from an acid attack by a former lover, and they live with Coralie's "father" - a French immigrant who runs this Museum of Extraordinary Things. He treats the freaks he hires as cattle (no worker's rights) and concocts fake curiosities in his cellar. When Coralie is of age, he's cashing in on her as well, having her up as an exhibit during the day in the freak show, and as some kind of voyeristic pornographic live show for rich perverts at night. She is used and abused and repressed. It's all a bit Jane Eyre, and Coralie does actually read this book and relate to the first Mrs Rochester.

That's only half the story, and at the same time we read the story of Eddie, a Ukrainian Jewish immigrint who is struggling with his identity and the hard life for the poor in New York City. He started off in tailoring, then looking for missing people, then as a photographer's apprentice. He's hired to look for a missing Jewish girl who has disappeared after a horrendous fire in a stitching factory (which I think actually happened - a towerblock of seamstresses basically burned alive, with doors locked by their employers so they couldn't take breaks, and of course this is the time before health and safety and fire escapes. And naturally the rich owners of this factory get off scott-free). His search for this missing girl brings him into contact with Coralie, and it's a kind of breathless, we-don't-need-to-speak love at first sight kind of story.

It is a bit of a sentimental book, in all honesty, but it is also a very interesting, although sometimes depressing, read about life in New York at that time - particularly the workers, the immigrants and in particular Coney Island where this Museum of Extraordinary Things was based.

Posting on to fellow bookcrosser and bookmoocher =)

A wishlist book found on Bookmooch. Thank you :)

Pretty sure this went on my wishlist because I saw in on a book list somewhere and thought it sounded good.

After almost a year of really struggling to concentrate on a book, I hit my stride back in July and found the joy of reading again but this book slowed me down somewhat. For some reason I really struggled with the parts in italics, bits in normal type were fine.

I did like the story which was sad at times, it had a whole host of interesting characters. I really hated the professor and I guessed early on that he wasn't who he said he was. For most of the book the two main characters don't spend much time together which was a shame as I would have liked more of that. I loved Eddie's dog Mitts!

The stuff about the fires was heart-breaking, no idea they were based on true events until I read the acknowledgements at the back of the book.

I think a lot of people would really enjoy this and I think it was my own concentration issues that brought it down for me.

Left in the phone box