Abandoned by her family, alone on the wrong side of the colour line with little to call her own, Eliza Meeks is coming to terms with what she does have. It's a gift for communicating with animals. To some, she's a magical tender. To others, a she-devil. To a talent prospector, she's a crowd-drawing oddity. And the Bacchanal Carnival is Eliza's ticket out of the swamp trap of Baton Rouge.
Among fortune-tellers, carnies, barkers, and folks even stranger than herself, Eliza finds a new home. But the Bacchanal is no ordinary carnival. An ancient demon has a home there too. She hides behind an iridescent disguise. She feeds on innocent souls. And she's met her match in Eliza, who's only beginning to understand the purpose of her own burgeoning powers.
Only then can Eliza save her friends, find her family, and fight the sway of a primordial demon preying upon the human world. Rolling across a consuming dust bowl landscape, Eliza may have found her destiny.
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There are those in this country who arrogantly suggest the old religion's dead.***
(47North, 1 June 2021, ebook, 347 pages, bought from @AmazonKindle, #AmazonFirstReads)
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This is a new author for me and a debut. I felt like reading something a little different for this month's Amazon First Reads having read a lot of similar thriller-type books over recent months. I love books about carnivals and the like, especially darker stories so this sounded like a treat. I love the cover as well. I had a great time reading this book. I loved the setting at the carnival and the range of eccentric characters Eliza meets. I also loved the darker elements of the book as the evil in the carnival starts to really come into full force and things get hairy. This is a great book. I look forward to seeing what the author comes up with next.
