Happy Monday, readers! Today I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Carlton Mellick III's Clownfellas. Note there is a tour wide giveaway on this one, so be sure to scroll to the end for the Rafflecopter.Imagine if clowns were crime bosses. Now imagine they aren't even human. This is the world Carlton Mellick III has created in Clownfellas: Tales of the Bozo Family. It's totally bizarre but oddly genius as well!
The book is set as six connected short stories:
In the first tale, "City of Clowns," we meet Earl Berryman, a zoo veterinarian hired to save Don Bozo's beloved lion. But there are two problems here. First, Earl has a serious clown phobia. Second, he's been drawn into a burgeoning gang war! Next up, Vinnie Blue Nose, the Bozo Top Capo, ends up lost in The Sideshow when his boss's son makes a mistake too big to cover up in "The Juggler Brothers." "A Sad Day for a Happy Clown" finds half clown Pinky Smiles preparing to propose to Uncle Jojo's beloved only daughter while "Funny Business" explores the comedy underground. Next up is the tale of "The Unwhackable Bingo Ballbreaker." And then there's "The Wedding," which begins with the ominous first line "There was no son of a bitch in all of Little Bigtop who deserved to be whacked more than Joey "Uncle Jojo" Bozo." And we soon learn why!
As you've probably already surmised, these are far from your average circus clowns. These guys fight dirty with laughing bullets, balloon weapons, and - in the case of Le Mystère - miming. Disrespecting them often comes in the form of not laughing at their jokes, but they have a code as well: rules they and the vanillas (humans) all must play by. Oh, and again, they're not human! Laughing gas can turn a vanilla into a clown, but beware the 10% who end up relegated to The Sideshow!
I knew I was getting into something weird with Clownfellas. What I didn't realize was that it was going to be brilliant fun! If the idea of a mafia clown family sounds intriguing to you, then you're probably going to enjoy this outing from Mellick as much as I did.
Rating: 4/5
To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here.
And now for the giveaway. As I mentioned above this is a tour wide giveaway hosted by the publisher. To enter simply fill out the Rafflecopter below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
2 comments:
Hi - I've seen this on TLC and have been curious about it. I think what I didn't realize was that it was a book of 6 stories. I thought it was one novel. :)
@dino0726 from
FictionZeal - Impartial, Straighforward Fiction Book Reviews
This is certainly an usual collection of stories but it also sounds pretty fantastic. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for being a part of the tour.
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