BookBrowse Reviews One of Us by Dan Chaon

BookBrowse:

Set in the early 20th century, One of Us centers on 13-year-old twins who flee their abusive home life and join a traveling circus, only to be pursued by their vengeful uncle.

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In 1932, Tod Browning (director of Dracula) released the cult classic movie Freaks. The film was about circus "freaks," and the cast included actual sideshow stars. When the freaks in the movie bond over drinking from the same "loving cup," they chant the refrain "one of us." Dan Chaon borrowed that line for his fifth novel—​the title calls back to the movie but also hints at the bigger themes at stake. What does it mean to belong?

Set in 1915, the book features contemporaneous themes surrounding Spiritualism and psychic phenomena in general. It was common at the time for people to talk openly about things like communicating with the dead. The protagonists are twins Bolt and Eleanor, both raised in a Spiritualist church. They are so close they can read each other's minds and have whole telepathic conversations. I love Spiritualist history and was excited to see those themes, well, revived here. I don't have a brother, much less a twin, and enjoyed living vicariously through Bolt and Eleanor's link. This deep connection helped them survive a tumultuous childhood in which their mother enlisted them in poisoning their stepfather (so she could collect the inheritance). After their parents die, their sadistic "Uncle" Charlie becomes their guardian. He draws them into helping him cheat at poker games in between his sudden, unprovoked acts of violence. The twins manage to flee, finding work with Mr. Jengleng, a kinder version of P.T. Barnum. Meanwhile, Uncle Charlie is desperate to reclaim the twins and sets out to find them.

I loved the world of carnival life the author builds. He includes the everyday work alongside the more alluring freak show depictions. The ethics and ableism of freak shows have been discussed often, as they should be. For the sake of enjoying the book, I suspended the impulse to ask those questions. It was especially easy because Chaon has the perfect touch, ensuring the sideshow performers are fully developed characters. Some were clearly based on real people, like Elmer is clearly a less cultured version of Fedor Adrianovich Jeftichew, aka Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy. Further, there are very few, if any, scenes in which the freaks are on display or being ogled or attacked. Rather, they are depicted finding family in one another. I cared about them from the start. As in previous novels, Chaon's writing holds warmth and concern for his characters.

I was also pleased with the carnival atmosphere and the juxtaposition of the characters discussing sincere matters of faith while conducting gimmicky psychic scams for money. To me, a carnival should inspire wonder by creating a third place where belief and not-belief coexist. Jengleng knows a lot about different occult practices and esoteric traditions like Theosophy. These references show the sincerity of his spiritual exploration, and that liminality where true belief meets charlatanism echoes how the circus yields beauty to those who can also brave the unsavory.

I only gave One of Us four stars because I wasn't convinced by the plotline involving Charlie hunting for the twins. In moments, Chaon tries to portray him as multifaceted. There are tender stories about his friendship with the twins' father, Jasper, but those only make it more incongruous that Charlie pursues Bolt and Eleanor so zealously. His motivations for doing so are a murky combination of revenge, wanting them under his control, and wanting their help cheating at cards. Whichever it is, Charlie saddling up his horse and heading out for a long trip seems implausible.

Perhaps his continued presence also seems misplaced on a purely anachronistic level. While he represents the tenacity of the twins' shared past, that past just seems more remote as the story progresses. I felt this part of the plot took space from the more intriguing atmosphere of carnival life that the author details so well—​that objectively fascinating time and place where carnies wake early to set up the carousel while Elmer the dog man readies his ring toss.

While these specific characters don't live in other books, there are many similar stories. At the end of the novel, Chaon includes recommendations for other books and movies on this subject. I loved this, and it made me imagine all of these writers and their characters as a community of circus dwellers, to which we as readers are invited to belong.

This review first ran in the September 24, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.