I really enjoyed this one! A creepy, great historical fiction book! I found the plot to be interesting, as well as the characters! looking forward to more from this author

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2020 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

I would be remiss in not beginning this review with a very, very emphatic trigger warning for child murder and pedophilia. If these are trigger issues for you, you’ll need to stay away from this one.

That said, I would also point out that if you’re on the fence about these things, this book is not nearly as dark or disturbing as such a trigger warning might imply. The attacks do take place on page and are in some cases described, though not graphically so. For what it’s worth, I’m definitely someone who is on the fence with this sort of trigger, and this book didn’t upset me at all.

The story features a delightful main character in Pin, a young woman who works odd jobs (some aboveboard, some not) at a carnival in Chicago while dressed as a boy, which both keeps her safe and makes her feel more personally comfortable than if she were presenting herself to the world as female.

Despite its dark themes, the book is sweeter than one would expect, largely because of the host of interesting friendships Pin strikes up as she navigates her own confusing and oft dangerous world and attempts to catch a murderer. And though the book is more character study and historical fiction than actual mystery, Hand acquits herself well as an author who can respectably handle the themes of all three.

I do have a slight gripe with the portrayal of Charlie Chaplin in this book. While history tells us he was far from a candidate for any sort of Good Citizen of the Year award, there is a HUGE difference between someone like Chaplin (who had icky though not necessarily criminal tastes in women) and an actual pedophile who would molest very young girls (which is what is implied about him in this book). Because we have no factual evidence to support this, it feels irresponsible to portray Chaplin in this way, even if he was a creep.

This was my first novel by the author, and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for future works. I found this to be a very peculiar book, both in content and writing style. I've never read anything like it. Historical fiction mixed with mystery may be my new favorite genre.

Elizabeth Hand delivers a mystery that is filled with over one hundred short, propulsive chapters. I did not see the ending coming. Her greatest achievement is portraying the limited ways people who were not at home in society’s proscribed roles were able to be true to themselves during this time. This is true for most of the characters, but for Pin and Henry especially. The epilogue was my favorite part of this book. There were some portions of the book that were a little muddled- why was Charlie Chaplin there at all- but overall the book was worth the time.

I really like historical books. This was a fascinating story set in Chicago in the early 1900s. Takes place at the local amusement park. A murder has been committed and a fourteen year old girl who dresses a boy tries to find the killer.

Curious Toys by Elizabeth Hand is an interesting Historical Fiction mixed with a mystery. The story takes place in 1915 Fair grounds in Chicago about twenty years after the World's Fire fire and the serial killer H.H. Holmes, with it's own serial killer to deal with. The history is a big part I was constantly reminded of the nonfiction work The Devil in the White City which covered the 1893 Chicago's World's Fair. The history and the rides at the time were really neat, The book only covers one in detail Hellsgate ride I could almost imagine it. The book is LGTBG friendly with it's lead character Pin who is a girl who lives as a boy and struggles with her feelings about girls and one girl in particular Glory. I have not read a great amount of LGTBQ books but I found this one really nailed the questioning of ones self. A special thanks to Netgalley and Mulholland Books for giving me a copy, Curious Toys was published on October 15 2019.

The Plot: Pin is a 14 year old girl who lives as a boy, it started for safety but she likes it and prefers it, her mother is a fortune teller at the fair. The both live on a shack on the fair grounds. Two years's ago Pin's sister was lost, she had a form of down syndrome, and has never been found. Pin runs drugs for Max, a he/she act where one side is a man and the other a woman. Pin is always curious and noticing things adults don't she is sensitive to young girls and strangers. She watches a young girl in a yellow dress get into a ride with a man and never get out, the man she doesn't get a good look but is sure what she's seen. She sneaks into ride and discovers a body. Pin is the only one who cares as the body brings even more people to check out the ride and the fair, Pin is willing to risk her life but she might have to risk something more important to her identity.

What I Liked: Pin as a character was fascinating, wish we spent more time with her, and her crisis. I liked the little twist with Glory and who she turned out to be. I liked the Charlie Chaplin bit especially the bit about the cops questioning him being ashamed at the way they are portrayed in his movies. I liked the climax it was pretty exciting. The killer was good the reader was left to fill in a lot of their reasons for the crimes. I did like the flashback of the killer, even at the time reading it you didn't know who's flashback it was. I did like the Fatty Bacon cop character and the date scene he had. I love, loved, the part about Pin wanting to expose the killer put to do it in a way she could keep her identity as being a boy, I found that really powerful. I liked the language and found it fitting of the time period. This was one of the coolest covers with all the images about the book is has, it was one of the reasons I selected to request this novel form netgalley.

What I Disliked: The character of Henry Darger I didn't care for a hospital janitor that isn't all there, slightly crazy, that looks out for young girls and has a club protecting them. His character was not needed and it kept the reader away from Pin. I would have liked his character a little more if his slight bio was at the beginning instead of at the end. I didn't like that the story jumped around having 7 different character's narratives. Pin, the killer and maybe one more character was all you needed, though I did like being in Charlie Chaplin's head briefly it didn't serve a narrative purpose and could been in the newspaper. I figured out who the killer was early, I saw where the novel was pulling me and saw through the misdirection. There was not that many possible suspects, so I found it easy to make the leap. I wanted better descriptions of all the people and things it keeps talking about boater hats, which I had to look up to know what they looked look then see it in the words on the page.

Recommendation: I would mildly recommend this to a reader searching for a LGTBQ character in the early 1900's and the questioning of one's self and identity was really good. If you like historical fiction of the early 1900's, I love Charlie Chaplin and found that part fascinating, as the description of the Hellsgate amusement park ride. I rated this novel 3 out of 3 stars. I found there were some really great moment and some not so great moments that it balanced out.

Absolutely fascinating and imaginative novel set in an amusement park in turn-of-the-century Chicago where Pin, a young girl, disguised as a boy by her fortune-teller mother for her safety, sees a girl in a yellow dress disappear with man into a tunnel ride; the girl vanishes, and Pin is on the case. One of her witnesses and a possible ally is a peculiar old man who calls himself a protector of children but is clearly mad and possibly dangerous. Along the way Hand explores gender fluidity and the disturbing art of Henry Darger, a true-life outsider artist whose work is both full of innocence and violence, raising interesting questions about the forms of art and entertainment we enjoy - a theme of her work.