Happy 2020! Curious Toys is still receiving reviews and making best-of lists well into this new year, so here’s a round-up:
First up, Curious Toys made the 2020 Locus Poll and Survey for Best Horror Novel.
CrimeReads included Curious Toys on their Best Books of 2019: Historical Fiction:
From an author who has achieved acclaim for stories of crime, horror, and fantasy, comes a new tale of intrigue and murder that checks off many of my favorite boxes. It’s got: lady detectives, old seaside amusement parks, the Gilded Age, silent film, women who disguise as men to embed in male-only groups, women who look out for other women, obscure real-life artist and writer Henry Darger.
And the Curious Toys audiobook, narrated by Carol Monda, made Slate’s Best Audiobooks of 2019:
Monda, my preferred narrator for any story with a noirish flavor (including Hand’s fabulous Cass Neary series), at first seemed an incongruous fit with the historical setting, but the world Henry and Pin inhabit is a hard-knock one, and within a few chapters it was impossible to imagine this story read by anyone else.
More reviews
Portland Press Herald: In a 1915 Chicago amusement park, a teenage girl makes a terrifying discovery:
Amusement parks are generally rich settings for murder and mayhem. Think Stephen King’s“Joyland” or “Slayground” by Donald Westlake, writing as Richard Stark. Places like Riverview both attract and repel us, offering a bit of sleaze gussied up with some cheap effects. Hand gets the details exactly right, finding the tawdry magic that animates such venues, but striking a balance between her research and the narrative momentum of the novel.
Los Angeles Review of Books: Dark Ride—On Elizabeth Hand’s “Curious Toys”:
The novel’s overarching ambiance of terror is never sacrificed during its more idiosyncratic historical detours. “Dark ride” doesn’t just describe the lurid indoor amusements contained in Hell Gate — it’s an apt summary of Curious Toys and all its shadowy diversions. These crop up in herky-jerky rhythms, lurching out at the reader like midway barkers or costumed nightmares stalking a haunted house.