The Fascination set in London with Essie Fox

Submitted: 15th May 2023

Fascination – a world of fairground ‘freaks’

Victorian England. A world of rural fairgrounds and glamorous London theatres. A world of dark secrets and deadly obsessions…

What an amazing setting for a book – fairgrounds, freak shows, oddities and illustions. Places where people come to marvel at the unexpected, the unexplained and the unusual.

Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn’t grown a single inch since she was five. Their futures are worlds apart. One will be a fascination…

BookTrail Travel to The Fascination

Boarding Pass Information: England’s fairgrounds, London

Author guide: Essie Fox

Genre: historical, gothic

Food and drink to accompany: popcorn and soda

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BookTrail Travel to The Fascination

I may have squealed with glee when I saw this book drop onto the mat. Essie Fox is the QUEEN of gothic strangeness and curiosities so this book, and its title spoke to me immediately. I was not disappointed.

The world of the circus freak and oddities seems so alien to us now – looking at people and laughing because of their ‘deformities’ or disabilities is both wrong and cruel. Yet, there was once a world in which people who were different in some way were put under a spotlight to be looked at.

The title of the book comes from the way people would queue up at these travelling fairs, or theatres and marvel at what was within. Tilly in the novel hasn’t grown like her twin sister so is declared as ‘odd’. Their father becomes obsessed with making money from this oddity and has them travellling over the country with an elexir, before he sells his children to the highest bidder.

BookTrail Travel to The Fascination

Theo who we later meet, is a young orphan raised by a man fascinated with anatomical freaks. He resents Theo and forces him to leave home when he marries. Theo then ends up in the very perculiar Dr Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy in London. Oh wait until you see what’s lies within. Essie’s curious mind and sharp pen really come into their own here for you can see the jars of creatures, body parts and more besides. I felt slightly dizzy I’m not going to lie. Remember all of this actually happened in some way or another. The author explains in her end notes, that not everything came from her imagination.

The darker side of the novel looks at the underground scene or alternative scene that existed at the time. Hellfire clubs were notorious in the 18th century and helped shape the ‘dubious’ scenes in the story. My eyes were opened to some very strange goings on. I’ll tell you what – I’m never going to look at Barnum and the Greatest Showman in the same way again.

Despite all of the showmanship in crafting the settings and locations, this novel is a very tender tale of love and acceptance. Tilly is at its heart – made to feel odd and unloved – Theo is the one who brings humanity and caring to the core. These two really made me want to invest in their world, in the story and protect them from the world at large.

The ending was a suprise and a good one at that. The travelling fairground ends its touring with a key message, a poignant tone and a chance to look back and recall the journey that both you as a reader as well as the characters have been on.

Highly recommended!