Dunn weaved a portrait of nostalgia that I am pained to be unable to experience. The classic carnival "freak show" written with extremely literary prose and literary references painted very human, 'inhuman' characters. I've never met a similar novel where I so badly wanted to be "different" like the Binewski's and experience their world, despite knowing that it all falls apart devastatingly from the start. I already have an immense love of carnival/circus theming with horror and depravity so the prose was surprising but so very welcome. This was basically the perfect book, my only regret is finishing it, I could have stayed with these characters forever.