**Actual rating 3.5** 
 I remember thoroughly enjoying this when I read it on holiday, but now that I've come to write this I've forgotten the vast majority of the story. I looked at the book, convinced I hadn't actually read it. For that reason I've docked my rating half a star. After having a brief flick through my notes and Goodreads I hope I've refreshed my memory enough to cobble together a review. 
 After loving Caraval (review here) I wanted to pick up every single book set in a circus or carnival. Hence why I picked up Freeks. Our main character Mara travels with her mother and found family in Gideon Davorin's Travelling Sideshow. However, Mara doesn't share her mothers gift for necromancy. A gift both Mara and her mother sometimes view as a curse. It gives her mother awful headaches, turns her violent and cutting with words. Though some of the scenes depicting this made me a little uncomfortable, I enjoyed reading about a power with very negative repercussions. 
 The plot itself though enjoyable moved with a great deal of Staccato. Everything was very stop start. Particularly the romance between Mara and local boy Gabe. Admittedly, it was cute but it felt as though the reader was meant to believe in love at first sight between these two. They meet at a party Mara snuck into, make out and that's it. Mara thinks she'll never see him again and neglected to tell him who she arrived in town with. 
 Freeks was a fun read but I retained so little. I might actually reread this in the future and hope I remember more about this. 
 www.a-novel-idea.co.uk