We are introduced to the group through the eyes of Sheba, an eight-year girl old who believes she was abandoned by her parents because she bears more than a passing resemblance to a wolf. Set around a gothic sideshow called Plumpscuttle’s Peculiars it follows a lovable group of misfits including Sister Moon, an ex-assassin who can move at the speed of light and is deadly with a blade, Monkey Boy, ace climber and human stink bomb, Mama Rat and her performing rats, and Gigantus, the man-mountain who is also an aspiring romance novelist. Especially if that alley is a mucky, smelly alley in the middle of smog filledVictorian London where sinister secrets and menacing men lurk in the shadows. I gave The Peculiars 4.5 stars on Goodreads.If you love history, mystery and adventure, then this winner of the Times Children’s Fiction competition will be right up your alley.
The book deals with some quite heavy subject matter with a deft, light touch. Parts are pretty disgusting – any paragraph involving monkey boy will mention snot at least once, and we know that kids love that. This book is so much fun! It’s set in Victorian times, and has a steampunky vibe.
Sheba is starting to tire of her new life, when the children of the poor start to disappear, and the Peculiars are asked to help… Life in a city freak show is much the same as in a small town – the food is just better. On the trip to London Sheba becomes acquainted with her fellow freaks – Gigantus, Mama Rat, Sister Moon and Monkey Boy. When Mr Plumpscuttle buys Sheba and her only friend (a two headed lamb) it’s the start of bigger and better things. Sheba is the main attraction in a show at a small seaside town she dreams of more exciting things, and longs to see London. The protagonist is Sheba, a twelve year old girl who was seemingly abandoned by her parents when she very young, because of her unfortunate lycanthropic tendencies. But during the day, in a world of childsnatchers, grave robbers and dastardly doctors, they solve the mysteries no one else cares about – including why London’s poorest children are being snatched from the banks of the Thames … There’s Wolfgirl, Sheba Sister Moon, who can move at the speed of light and Monkey Boy, ace climber and human stink bomb.
The Peculiars are a band of misfits, trapped in a nightly Victorian sideshow. The front cover of The Peculiars had me hooked, and the tagline “Most unusual crime-fighters ever”. In my mind, that’s what reading should be, an adventure. I’m coming off a pretty serious reading slump, and I don’t know, the bright covers, fantastical plots and sense of adventure in kids books are appealing to me. At least three quarters of the books I’ve been buying recently have been children’s books not even YA – full on 9-12 age range books.
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