Carnivalesque - Neil Jordan

Neil Jordan has created a fascinating world within the novel Carnivalesque. This is the most unique story I have read and I promise you that you will never read another book like it. I picked out this novel at the library because it has such an interesting concept, but it ended up as not quite what I had expected. 

To Andy and his parents, it just looks like another colourful carnival, with its flashing lights and circus tents. But when Andy ventures into the Hall of Mirrors, something unexpected happens. In a confusion of reflections, one of Andy's reflections walks out of the Hall of Mirrors to join his parents and go back home, leaving the real Andy trapped in the mirror himself. Just like that, he is transported to the amazing world of carnival life where time and gravity don't exist. Meanwhile, Andy's parents struggle with the emotionless shell of their son that replaced him. When mysterious things start to happen in Andy's coastal, Irish town, he starts to realise that maybe he wasn't just an ordinary boy after all.

In all honesty, the storyline of this novel is bizarre. It is very interesting and entertaining but it is not what I had expected. "Carnivalesque" has a sort of fantasy vibe yet it was also felt like it was set in a futuristic, parallel world. Either way, when the novel flitted between the normal world and the carnival, it felt like I was stepping into a different world. Neil Jordan created an incredible atmosphere within his novel through the narrative voice. I felt like I was reading from the main character's view but I was not. The narrator gave immense detail into the character's opinions and emotions yet described scenes in a way that was entirely removed from the situation. 

As I mentioned previously, I picked up this book because I was intrigued by the idea switching places with your reflection but unfortunately, that idea didn't hang around for long. That was simply the first event before the plot took a completely different route before revisiting that theme towards the end. So much of the novel seemed completely random and I felt like I was reading a fairytale (which wasn't necessarily a bad thing). At many points throughout the novel, I felt like I was missing a part of the backstory or that the whole story was just a metaphor for something else. 

Overall, "Carnivalesque" was a fascinating novel although it was difficult to follow and confusing at times. A creative entanglement of joy and sadness, breaking the rules of what we know as reality.

Thanks for reading this blog post and go get your hands on this novel if my review sparked an interest in you!

~Inkpot Blogger