Pilo Family Circus

by Will Elliott

Overview

Jamie's tyres squealed to a halt. Standing in the glare of the headlights was an apparition dressed in a puffy shirt with a garish flower pattern It wore oversized red shoes, striped pants and white face paint. It stared at him with ungodly boggling eyes, then turned away... this seemingly random incident triggers a nightmarish chain of events as Jamie finds he is being stalked by a trio of gleefully sadistic clowns who deliver a terrifying ultimatum: you have two days to pass your audition. You better pass it, feller. You're joining the circus. Ain't that the best news you ever got? Jamie is plunged into the horrific alternate universe that is the centuries-old Pilo Family Circus, a borderline world between hell and earth from which humankind's greatest tragedies have been perpetrated. Yet in this place peopled by the gruesome, grotesque and monstrous, where violence and savagery are the norm, Jamie finds that his worst enemy is himself - for when he applies the white face paint, he is transformed into JJ, the most vicious clown of all. And JJ wants Jamie dead.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780733323881
Publisher:	Dogwise Publishing
Publication date:	11/15/1900
Pages:	354
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Will Elliott came to international attention when his debut novel, The Pilo Family Circus , won five Australian literary awards. In America it was short-listed for the International Horror Guild Award for best novel. His development as a writer began at nineteen, when Elliott dropped out of law school and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. With influences as diverse as Chuck Palahniuk, Bret Easton Ellis, H. P. Lovecraft, and early Stephen King, his writing is at turns creepy, violent, spare, and wickedly imaginative. Now twenty-nine, Elliott is working on a follow-up novel and has recently completed a memoir. He lives in Brisbane, Australia.

Editorial Reviews

"I couldn't put Elliott's novel down. It's fantastic . . . An entertaining mixture of Palahnuik and David Lynch."
--Independent on Sunday

"Inventive, scary and darkly humorous novel has a dash of Stephen King and a hint of Lovecraft but is really sui generis. It may be a true one-off but that doesn't stop me wanting more."
--Observer

"As much surreal poetry as macabre thrills . . . this is a first novel of real promise. At his best, Elliott writes with a power commensurate with the originality of his vision. It is not just that he has unusually nasty visions to put on the page but he has the ability to make us share them."
--TLS

"Elliott's clowns are as unnerving as they come."
--Guardian

"A darkly disreputable combination of horror, fantasy, thriller and gross-out humour . . . genuinely terrifying . . . wonderfully effective . . . calls to mind Stephen King at his best . . . will appeal and appall in equal measure."
--Scotland on Sunday

"An excellently coherent act of imagination . . . the plot is full of wonderful grotesqueries and unfolds at a cracking pace. I was enjoying reading this book so much I forgot I was meant to review it."
--Sydney Morning Herald

"A fiery allegory for our times."
--Australian Review

"This is territory where few Australian novelists have ventured, let alone with Elliott's disquieting composure. He brings a stylistic restraint to the depiction of horrors."
--The Bulletin

"Will Elliott's prose is sharp and engaging . . . this intriguing book mixes fantasy with psychological horror to squirming effect."
--The List

"A bravura performance, a disquieting glimpse into a richly imagined and horribly plausible parallel universe."
--Financial Times

"This sadistic world makes for one highly enjoyable read, especially for all of you out there who delight in the nightmarishly macabre."
--Buzz
"Dark, wickedly inventive comedy . . . Awesome."
--Maxim

"An astonishing book which combines vicious slapstick and relentless black comedy with a breathtakingly vivid, visual style . . . riotous gore-fest which is immensely entertaining, often hilarious and contains not a little pathos. Completely unforgettable."
--Tangled Web

"The novel is packed with wonderful fantasy ideas and prose. ****"
--SFX

From the Publisher