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MY ⭐️ RATING: 3.25/5
Format: Kindle Whispersync
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Vaudeville is an absurd, mercenary world of showmanship clashing cultures and wickedly delightful deceptions. But sixteen-year-old pianist George Carole has joined vaudeville for one reason only: to find the man he suspects to be his father, the great Heironomo Silenus. Yet as he chases down his father’s troupe, he begins to understand that their performances are strange even for vaudeville: for wherever they happen to tour, the very nature of the world seems to change.
Because there is a secret within Silenus’s show so ancient and dangerous that it has won him many powerful enemies. And once George joins them, he realizes the troupe is not simply touring: they are running for their lives. And now so is he.
MY REVIEW
I haven’t ready anything from Bennett since reading his Divine Cities trilogy several years ago, that I loved. So when I saw this on sale in early July and the cover saying “A deft amalgam of thriller, cerebral horror and American gothic” not to mention “like a collaboration between Stephen King & John Steinbeck,” I was all in. While I agree that there is some suspense and psychological dread for the characters, I never truly felt that the characters were too much in fear.
Bennett has a way with building a world that feels complete. Nothing is left out to help us readers immerse ourselves. Based on the mention of a real life person, The Troupe is set in the very early 1900’s, perhaps 1900 itself, when vaudeville was dominating the entertainment scene. I would call The Troupe a historical fantasy with a smidge of horror, almost like The Greatest Showman or Moulin Rouge meets vaudeville and Houdini. It’s a unique story that kept me on my toes in what to expect next, along with some crazy characters.
The strongest part of this story were the characters, hands down. The main character of George and supporting character Colette have a kind of Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman vibe from Moulin Rouge, while Harry the leader felt like a mean Hugh Jackman from The Greatest Showman. The other characters rounded out the story with Stanley the cellist, Tyburn the wizard puppeteer, and Franny the strongwoman. All the characters had great depth with differing personalities that made everything work. The antagonists were a different story, I just wasn’t a fan and never felt like they were a threat, though there was one that stood out above the rest as worthy.
“But I think art… I think it’s making something from nothing, basically. It’s taking something as simple as a movement, or a few notes, or steps, or words, and putting them all together so that they’re bigger than what they ever could have been separate. They’re transformed. And just witnessing that transformation changes you. It reaches into your insides and moves things around. It’s magic, of a sort.”
I knew going into this that it was going to take a bit for the ball to start rolling into the thick of the story. But if I’m being completely honest, it took WAY too long to develop. Part 1 could’ve been cut in half and everything would’ve landed the same way without feeling like something was missing. It had some good parts, but I nearly DNF’d it because of just how long everything took to get going.
I thought the narration by Luis Moreno was fine, he did a very good job of being able to dig into the story and characters, but he was limited on his female voices and I had to speed it up to 1.5x just for it to feel like it was at a normal speed, where I usually listen at a 1x speed. Once I sped it up, I enjoyed the narration much more. Because Bennett wrote this story in a third-person omniscient, storyteller style, the pairing with Moreno’s voice reminded me a bit of Rex Allen Jr, the narrator from the Jim Carrey film Me, Myself and Irene. Almost spot on.
I was hoping to enjoy this more, but it was just, fine. The writing is fantastic, and I think if you are looking for something a bit different that is in the thriller, horror world, maybe you can give it a shot and feel differently than I did. I’ll finish this by saying that the final 2 hours of this story, did make the read feel worthwhile.
Wolfmantula.com 