I'm going to start this out by saying the cover is beautiful and by one of my favourite artists.

That said, I agree with most of the reviewers of this book in that it does talk about the boy and his out of control sexual desires quite a bit. It doesn't make the book any less appropriate for an older teen audience (14 ) but it does get a little tedious. We know how a boy his age would react to an enticing topless dance. We don't need to hear about it every time he has a dream, honestly. I did enjoy the story, though, and would recommend it for people interested in a rarely used subject in YA of circus acts and sideshows. It seems that Klause did quite a bit of research on the subject while writing and you actually get transported to the time and place with ease - the history doesn't seem forced.
I didn't like it as much as I remember liking Blood and Chocolate but I like it much better than The Silver Kiss (which seemed quite juvenile and ordinary to me). ( )

Abel, the teenaged son of two sideshow freaks, leaves home looking for his own life, and finds himself working with the freak show of a traveling circus. ( )

This book was a really fulfilling adventure and coming of age novel -- I think older junior high or high school students (as well as adults!) would really like it. There is some sexual business (Abel is 17 after all) and some violence in it, but it isn't too explicit and fits nicely with the action of the story. Klause's characters, her descriptions of circus life, and the view of late-19th century America are all strong points of the book. There is a "twist" that I could spot right away, but I think younger readers will be surprised, and even though I figured out what was going on more quickly than it was revealed, the plot ultimately moved beyond the twist and kept me entertained and excited.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2010/01/freaks-alive-on-inside-by-annette.html ] ( )

first line: "When a boy's first romantic interlude is with Phoebe the Dog-Faced Girl, he feels a need to get out into the world and find a new life."

Narrator-protagonist Abel, the son of an armless woman and legless man, is an anatomically unremarkable teen living and working among "very special people." After coming into possession of an old Egyptian ring, he sets out to seek his fortune, accompanied only by his dreams of a mysterious dancing girl...and the naive young hypotrichosic boy who secretly follows him.

Now, I'd've read this novel merely for the fact that it deals with sideshows and traveling carnivals. But even people who don't share my fascination with these things may appreciate Klause's coming-of-age adventure story filled with themes both human (courage, the desire to be understood and accepted, love, lust, and the perversion of greed) and supernatural (centuries-old magic, visions, and reincarnation). ( )

Great story of a boy who is borne to a circus where everyone has an extraordinary ability and he remains the only normal one of the bunch. He leaves to seek his own fortune, fallowing nothing but the voice of a beautiful Egyptian dancer in his dreams.
Beautifully written tale of 'freaks' in the early 1900's, and how they have feelings just like us. ( )