One of my first special interests, long before I knew what “special interest” meant, was carnivals and side shows. I was specifically interested in Feejee mermaids, but through trying to learn about them I also became fascinated by freak shows. I’ve still got an unnecessarily large collection of books about PT Barnum, freak shows, and - a byproduct of being interested in the Feejee mermaid - cryptozoology.

Freak shows and carnivals have popped up in genre fiction for a very long time. There’s Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932), Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, Carnivàle, The Night Circus, Where The Devil Roams (2023), just to name a few. Even though that special interest waned over a decade ago I still seek them out, but for some reason I’ve never written one.

Until now, anyway. Today I introduce you to Dr. Valtine’s Cabinet of Aberrations, a travelling freak show pitched up somewhere deep in the forest. I could write a long essay about why I think it’s important to fill settings like this with people that just exist rather than being directly linked to any notion of “plot”, but I’ll spare you that and let the work speak for itself.

I hope you enjoy today’s entry.