It’s all happening at Gideon Davorin’s Traveling Sideshow. The audience thinks they are seeing slight of hand and optical illusions but there are no illusions here. Gideon’s sideshow is the real thing, a magical place where you’ll encounter levitation, pyrokinesis, necromancy and all manner of dark arts.

The sideshow has set up camp in Caudry, Louisiana, against the better judgement of those who experience premonitions and forewarnings. The performers have little choice, living from gig to gig, they are all broke and simply need to last it out for seven days.

Mara is the daughter of Lyanka, a famed fortune-teller with a direct link to the dead. On their first night in Caudry, Mara takes a walk across town and happens upon a house party. There she meets Gabe, intense and witty with just the hint of a deep secret about him.

Despite the mystery, Mara and Gabe become inseparable within days. But what of Caudry? There is a sinister presence lurking at the edges of the campsite and worse than that, there are attacks occurring with ever-increasing frequency. Who or what is it that is attacking the performers and how can it be stopped?

Freeks is the latest book from Amanda Hocking, a veteran young adult writer and author of the Trylle and Kanin series.

There is so much to say about Freeks and it is difficult to know where to begin. Perhaps it would make most sense to start with the gorgeous cover. I realise that it is the first day of the year but I’m willing to place a wager that this will be my favourite cover of 2017. It is colourful, mysterious and alluring and embodies everything that this book is.

I loved the concept of the travelling sideshow and the Supernatural feel of the book. Whereas Supernatural has us singing along to the classic rock hits of the 1970s, Freeks is set in the middle of the 1980s and I loved spotting all the pop culture references and songs that came out in my teenage years.

Mara is one of my favourite protagonists in a long while. Confident and self-assured, she was no Mary Sue waiting for a boy to come along and save her and in fact at one point, she muses about how she is going to break Gabriel’s heart when the sideshow leaves town.

In addition to Mara and Gabe, Freeks is full of intriguing characters, each with their own history and reasons for joining the sideshow. It is such a rarity when authors pen diverse, interesting characters and it was greatly appreciated and enjoyed. With such a diverse cast, I would love to see this book hit television or the big screen. Amanda Hocking has thought about it too and says she envisaged Cassie Steel and Ryan Guzman as possible actors who could play Mara and Gabe.

At its core, Freeks is a fascinating paranormal fantasy where the tension builds up and the threads slowly come together to unearth the peril that is facing Gideon Davorin’s Traveling Sideshow. I’ll be honest and say that I guessed part of the final reveal but that detracted in no way from my enjoyment of the story. In fact, I felt rather smug for picking up on the clues Hocking left throughout the book.

There is no news yet on whether there will be a sequel to Freeks and indeed, it is being marketed as a standalone novel, but can I just say that I really hope there is one?

I give Amanda Hocking's Freeks a superb five out of five stars and recommend it to all lovers of the paranormal and unexplained and fans of young adult fiction.