Behind May-belle's Curtain
Book Details
Author(s)P. S. Ballantyne
PublisherP. S. Ballantyne
ISBN / ASINB017QDOVKS
ISBN-13978B017QDOVK2
Sales Rank66,892
MarketplaceUnited States 🇺🇸
Description
In the Appalachian Mountains in 1884, the impoverished Curtain family is expecting their thirteenth child, having taken measures to ensure it will be a boy. But when May-belle is born into a grimy world of superstition and violence, there is something wrong with her, other than her gender. Cast out, she forges a new home with a group of extraordinary carnies that are traveling west, unknowingly towards the deadliest natural disaster ever to strike the United States.
As May-belle’s ‘unique talent’ becomes a popular attraction at a dubious freak show, her increased confidence leads to snooping and the uncovering of some sinister secrets. The disparate group of intriguing performers trying to survive on the fringe of a morbidly curious society is manipulated into uniting against a vile common enemy. Friends and foes seem interchangeable as suspicions run high, and as one of their own makes a play to take over, May-belle learns that no one in the troupe is to be trusted.
The guarded history of the carnies begins to be revealed as the new millennium dawns. Rumors about mutilated corpses rage as the macabre curiosities pavilion becomes more and more crowded. Friday the 13th and a full moon approaches, and the troupe’s superstitions risk bringing about a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom.
As the storm clouds gather, May-belle’s journey of endurance and self-discovery tests the limits of her young mind. The fear of fear itself is not the only thing she has to worry about, as she longs for a life a little less extraordinary with her new best friend, a person whose identity is shrouded in mystery. May-belle’s survival in a place where nothing is what it seems comes down to good luck; not something that has ever run in the Curtain family.
As May-belle’s ‘unique talent’ becomes a popular attraction at a dubious freak show, her increased confidence leads to snooping and the uncovering of some sinister secrets. The disparate group of intriguing performers trying to survive on the fringe of a morbidly curious society is manipulated into uniting against a vile common enemy. Friends and foes seem interchangeable as suspicions run high, and as one of their own makes a play to take over, May-belle learns that no one in the troupe is to be trusted.
The guarded history of the carnies begins to be revealed as the new millennium dawns. Rumors about mutilated corpses rage as the macabre curiosities pavilion becomes more and more crowded. Friday the 13th and a full moon approaches, and the troupe’s superstitions risk bringing about a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom.
As the storm clouds gather, May-belle’s journey of endurance and self-discovery tests the limits of her young mind. The fear of fear itself is not the only thing she has to worry about, as she longs for a life a little less extraordinary with her new best friend, a person whose identity is shrouded in mystery. May-belle’s survival in a place where nothing is what it seems comes down to good luck; not something that has ever run in the Curtain family.
