Nancy Stohlman (1)

A woman so determined to be famous, she'll try anything. So will her reflection. Together, woman and reflection travel around until they find a place where they belong. However, when they get separated, one is not sure how to function without the other.

Written in the style of flash fiction, each chapter of Madam Velvet's Cabaret of Oddities ranges from a sentence to several paragraphs. I have only read a few flash fiction short stories before, so reading an entire book in this style was definitely a new experience for me. It did take me a few chapters to get into the story, but once I was in the groove, I was devouring page after page. Much like the shards of the broken reflection, the story is told in bits and pieces. Information is received out of order and sometimes out of context, there are flashbacks to the woman's childhood as well as visits from her future self. There are peeks into the lives of other carnival workers like the Four-Legged Woman and the Human Skeleton as well. With this style of writing, my imagination went wild creating the settings and characters in my mind. Some of the settings and scenarios were outrageous, such as the Fantasy Hand-Job brothel, but the themes of self-worth and longing will be able to connect with any reader. Madam Velvet's Cabaret of Oddities is an eerie and different flash-fiction read, easily consumed in one sitting.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.… (meer)