Customer Reviews

The Pilo Family Circus

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I thought this book was fantastic! Funny, and as imaginative as anything I've read lately. In a time where some of our big name authors (I won't name names) seem to be getting stale, a new crowd is stepping up, Joe Hill, Lisa Gardner, G. W. Dahlquist, and now Elliot. It seems this book has won quite a few awards over in its native Australia, and it is undoubedtly a debut of real promise.

But I must disagree with the previous reviewer's comments comparing this book to "It" - it is a totally different style to that, and I don't think it is horror of quite the same intent. "It" wanted to scare you, this one does something else. A definite "must read".

Here's a book sure to grab your attention: grab it, shake it, chew on it and spit it out! The Pilo Family Circus is one part comedy and one part comic book violence.

Comparisons with "It" and other evil clowns are a little misplaced. The clowns are a rough and ready bunch to be sure: lead by the scheming, sadistic Gonko, the masochistic Rufshod, the creepy space-cadet Goshy and his puppy-dog psychopath brother Doopy as well as the mysterious Winston, the clowns draw the protagonist Jamie into the Pilo Family Circus when he accidentally comes to their attention. But the clown troupe is not the real evil of the Circus, no sir. That would be Kurt Pilo, the bestial proprietor who snacks on teeth and his Napoleonic brother George. Even these two serve shadowy masters who reside... elsewhere.

In between the clowns' struggles to win Kurt's favour and sabotage other acts of the Circus (their running battle with the camp-but-deadly acrobats is hilarious) we witness Jamie's struggle with his alter-ego J.J., who emerges when Jamie is forced to don his magical face paint. This battle of wills can only have one winner - and one dead loser.

The action is fast paced, the dialogue is witty, salty and colours the characters very nicely. Subsequent readings of this book have revealed deeper allegorical elements to this story, for example the Jamie/J.J. struggle could be a metaphor for someone's struggle with addiction or schizophrenia. The circus itself may be a comment on our need for and addiction to distraction and entertainment, even as our souls are sucked our of our bodies.

In all this was a cracking read and I would recommend not reading it on the train or bus, as there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. For fans of The Young Ones and H.P. Lovecraft alike, enjoy this fine debut.

OK for a quick read, but i won't be bothering to read it again in a couple of years.
And this is nowhere near the same league as Palanhuik or Neil Gaiman.
The characters were good, but could have been fleshed out more to give the narrative more substance. I also think it was a great idea unfortunately let down by being poorly executed, it's not bad for a first novel, but its certainly not a classic.

Not for the faint-hearted. There are shades of Papa Lazarou here, on hard drugs and with a grudge (and a chainsaw). A very dark horror-comedy about a hidden circus with pitiful freak-show characters, angry dwarves and deranged clowns, if you love (the BBC's) League of Gentlemen this story will suit you very well. The clowns get the best of it in general but Goshy was my favourite, a shrieking, staring grotesque whose unnatural love for his `wife' was horrible and touching and made me laugh out loud.

The cruelty and violence is extreme and so casually detailed and with so much humour, I wasn't surprised to find the author is a schizophrenic law-school drop-out and that the book was written on anti-psychotics.

It's one of the funniest books I've read this year,I can't wait to see what Will Elliot writes next.

What an amazing read! I really enjoyed reading this book from start to finish, will elliot has a extremely twisted sense of humour which had me laughing throughout. A must for anyone who thinks they would enjoy a sadistic adventure into the world of circus life which is the pilo family circus! Be sure not to step out of line or you'll be sent to the matter manipulator!!Arghhhhh!

Fabulous. Absolutely revelling in its own weirdness, this book comes at you with the energy of a freight train. The concept of the dark, otherwordly carnival may not be new, but the execution is excellent and the atmosphere is relentlessly menacing. Black humour and 'evil slapstick' abounds as the bodies pile up in an impressive display of carnage. Your heart goes out to poor, bewildered Jamie even as you loathe his murderous alter-ego JJ, and the other characters are wonderfully bizarre (Goshy in particularly is terrifyingly hilarious). I never really understood why clowns were supposed to be scary. Now I do.

I was unsure of this book when I first opened it as clowns have always seemed very sinister to me, and this book did not fail to reinforce my ideas! But the story is an interesting and colourful one, full of great characters (esp. Gonko!) and an inventive plot!

Clowns had always had a sinister role to play in popular culture. From "Krusty " the clown in "The Simpsons" to the clown in Stephen Kings bloated novel "It" to Papa Lazarou In "The League Of Gentlemen" there is something distinctly unnerving about them . Serial killer John Wayne Gacy used to dress as a clown for children's parties , that's when he wasn't killing young men and burying them in the crawl space under his house.

It's actually a bit of a surprise their incarnate creepiness hasn't been used more often so "The Pilo Family Circus" is a welcome addition to the genre-if indeed there is genre . Except the clowns in this novel aren't so much creepy as downright evil, psychopathic ,and murderous . Which is no surprise , as the circus they work for -the one of the title- is set in some nether region bordering hell , or so we are led to believe and is run by two siblings- George and Kurt Pilo( who co- inherited the circus after chewing his fathers face off) who constantly attempt to kill each other and is populated by brooding gypsies, garish freaks, homicidal acrobats, baleful dwarfs and has a Funhouse which no one who enters ever returns from.

Into this tormented hellhole comes Jamie , a young man living in Brisbane who on the way home from work one night encounters three clowns from who he filches a little pouch of what looks like dust .( This dust has a significance integral to the plot) Soon his life is turned into a maelstrom of insanity as the clown s make it nastily clear he has to pass some kind of audition . On doing this he is kidnapped and forced to learn the art of clowning for the Pilo Family Circus. The Clowns are a mixed bunch . The groups leader ,Gonko, is misanthropic ,amoral , devious, but calculating and cunning while Goshy is a psychotic sinister fruit loop in love with a potted fern. His brother Doopy is a juvenile delinquent but a very dangerous one, while old hand Winston is wary and seems to be hiding something. Jamie meanwhile, once he dons the clown face paint mutates into whiny bullying lunatic JJ and the two opposing characters battle it out for control of the body they both inhabit .

It's a slick pacy read, with moments of extreme violence , and sadism but done in a slightly tongue in cheek manner with genuinely witty moments. Its more screwball black comedy than outright horror though some readers will find it genuinely shocking . Comparing it to Stephen King is wrong as it's far more enjoyable than most King novels, none of his rambling self indulgence her. ,The Chuck Palanhuik comparisons are apt though it's not as literate as his work .I think if you imagine Dave Barry or Carl Hiaasen turning their hand to the horror genre you wouldn't go far wrong and this book is every bit as pleasurable as that prospect sounds

This was described as unputdownable on the cover and had a few other descriptions (darkly imaginative, wickedly funny) which persuaded me to buy it. I must say I was tempted to put it down quite early on, the only reason I kept reading was in the hope it would merit the unputdownable tag. As it turned out it didn't. There are some good ideas in this but they never seem to fully come to fruition, with explanations of the bizarre being vague and well ... boring. The author's power's of description are also a bit clumsy and lack refinement and I couldn't help feeling it needed a few more drafts. Another review compared it to the league of gentlemen but papa lazarou IS darkly imaginative and wickedly funny whereas this ... isn't.

If you already have a fear of clowns, don't even consider reading this book! I picked it up for a song in a charity shop, because I liked the cover and found the title intriguing, so I can't really blame the author for the fact that I detest horror stories. And it was. Horrible, that is! I'm not really sure why I continued to read to the end - maybe in the hope that there would be some shred of redemption for the central character. The atrocities got worse, the plot more and more depraved. I have to give it 3 stars, even though I hated it, because several years on it still stands out in my mind as shocking read, but I guess seasoned horror readers might not be that phased by it.