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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Oct 2019, 384 pages
Paperback:
Sep 2020, 384 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Jordan Lynch
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An intrepid young woman stalks a murderer through turn-of-the-century Chicago in "this rich, spooky, and atmospheric thriller that will appeal to fans of Henry Darger and Erik Larson alike" (Sarah McCarry).
In the sweltering summer of 1915, Pin, the fourteen-year-old daughter of a carnival fortune-teller, dresses as a boy and joins a teenage gang that roams the famous Riverview amusement park, looking for trouble.
Unbeknownst to the well-heeled city-dwellers and visitors who come to enjoy the midway, the park is also host to a ruthless killer who uses the shadows of the dark carnival attractions to conduct his crimes. When Pin sees a man enter the Hell Gate ride with a young girl, and emerge alone, she knows that something horrific has occurred.
The crime will lead her to the iconic outsider artist Henry Darger, a brilliant but seemingly mad man. Together, the two navigate the seedy underbelly of a changing city to uncover a murderer few even know to look for.
Suppose, now, that in a room of watching others coquet with Death, you should toy with her yourself. With infinite ingenuity, the amusement park offers you opportunity.
—Rollin Lynde Hartt, "The Amusement Park,"
Atlantic Monthly, May 1907
We aren't easily intimidated.
And yet we are always frightened
—John Ashbery, Girls on the Run
Chapter 1
AN ACCIDENT, NOT his fault. Wouldn't stop bouncing, set her on fire and policeman choked him, big hands yes your fault, not an accident don't you lie to me. He ran and here he was, keeping her safe, keeping them all safe. Won't happen again he was watching now. It was an accident.
Chapter 2
Riverview Amusement Park, Chicago, August 1915
THERE HE WAS again, smoking a cigar in front of the Infant Incubators. A white man not much taller than Pin—and she was small for her age and looked twelve, rather than fourteen—but too tall to be a midget. Something stealthy and twitchy about him: every few minutes, his head ...
With a spunky heroine, her odd but earnest partner, and a dazzling yet dark setting, Hand has created a page-turning tale that perfectly balances fiction with the true history of Riverview. Additionally, the inclusion of themes such as gender identity and the objectification of young girls make Curious Toys a story that is relevant for modern times while still maintaining the feel of early 20th century Chicago...continued
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(Reviewed by Jordan Lynch).
Lauren Beukes, internationally acclaimed author of The Shining Girls and Broken Monsters
Glittering and scruffy as its carnival setting, with the deep gravity hold of a rollercoaster. Lori Rader-Day, Edgar Award-nominated author of Under a Dark Sky
Elizabeth Hand crafts a story that is, to borrow her own phrasing late in Curious Toys, 'gruesome but peculiar,' a fun-house mirror of a novel filled with Chicago history and detail. Dark and thrilling. Sarah McCarry, author of All Our Pretty Songs
Elizabeth Hand is a national treasure. Sinister sideshow hustlers, back alley intrigues, and brilliant outsiders: Turn-of-the-century underworld Chicago comes alive in this rich, spooky, and atmospheric thriller that will appeal to fans of Henry Darger and Erik Larson alike.
In Curious Toys, the main character, Pin, investigates the murder of a young girl in the Riverview Amusement Park in Chicago in 1915. Only one other person witnessed the girl's disappearance, a strange, shambling man named Henry Darger. Pin is fictional, but Darger is based on a real person who became famous posthumously as an artist and writer.
Henry Darger was born in Chicago in 1892. When he was four years old, his mother died giving birth to a baby girl, who was immediately put up for adoption. The separation from his sister is believed to have deeply affected Darger. He did not get along well with other children growing up, and was often violent with them. At age eight, he was placed in a boy's home where he lived for four years ...
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