About Clownfellas: Tales of the Bozo Family

• Publisher: Hydra (July 14, 2015)
• Sold by: Random House LLC

“Carlton Mellick III goes past silly, through weird, detours around dumb, blasts through bizarre, and gets to a place where the normal physics of narrative no longer apply. You will never be the same.”—Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother and Homeland

In a topsy-turvy world where clowns are killers and crooks, Little Bigtop is a three-ring circus of crime, and no syndicate is more dangerous than the Bozo family. From the wildly original mind of Carlton Mellick III comes the short-story collection ClownFellas—an epic mob saga where life is cheap and the gags will slay you.

For years, the hard-boiled capos of the Bozo family have run all of the funny business in Little Bigtop, from the clown brothels to the illegal comedy trade. But hard times have befallen the Bozos now that Le Mystère, the French clown Mafia, has started moving in and trying to take over the city. If that weren’t enough, they’ve got to deal with the cops, the Feds, the snitches, the carnies, the mysterious hit man Mr. Pogo, and the mutant clowns over in the Sideshow district. With the odds stacked against them, the Bozos must fight to survive . . . or die laughing.

“Mario Puzo meets Barnum & Bailey . . . You just can’t look away as the ridiculousness escalates.”—Publishers Weekly

“The most original novelist working today? The most outrageous? The most unpredictable? These aren’t easy superlatives to make; however, Carlton Mellick may well be all of those things, behind a canon of books that all irreverently depart from the form and concepts of traditional novels, and adventure the reader into a howling, dark fantasyland of the most bizarre, over-the-top, and mind-warping inventiveness. In my opinion, ClownFellas is his best work to date.”—Edward Lee, author of City Infernal and Header

“I rarely enjoy clowns—which is ironic since I’ve been one for over four decades—but ClownFellas is great on so many levels, irony being one of them. What can I say besides I love it! Great read, and funny as hell . . . I have been accused of being unfunny before, and after the trial I had to enter the Witless Protection Program. This is funny!”—Barry Lubin, aka Grandma, longtime Big Apple Circus clown

Review

In all fairness, I did expect clowns more in line of Pennywise from It than the clowns that were in this book. I thought I was reading a horror book, but it was too much humor for it to be called horror (in my opinion) I did like the Clown world and the characters. It was just not what I had expected and also, even though it had its charming moments, I just couldn't really find myself enjoying the whole book. Some parts were better than the other.  But I must admit that even though I felt that it wasn't my kind of book wasn't it in any way bad. It was well written and I love the idea of a mafia type of family of clowns.  I really liked Little Bigtop and its clown population. But I was just not totally taken with all the stories in the book.

The book has six parts, every part is independent, but they still are connected to the whole story. You can say that every part have a different character that's the focus of the story. I liked the first part best because it was a great introduction Little Bigtop and the Bozo crime family.  Earl Berryman, a veterinarian, is on his way to help a lion for Don Bozo. The problem is that he is terrified of clowns. Great story, I love the ending.  The rest was also ok, but the one that I felt really wasn’t that interesting to read was Funny Business with Buggy Buttons. You would think that everything going bad for Buttons all the time would be funny, but it just get’s annoying. The last part, the Wedding Day was also a bit weak, but at least the bridezilla made the story a bit fun. I was mostly quite tired of Uncle Jojo and his problems towards the end of the story.

I think Vinnie Blue Nose was the one I liked the best out of all the clowns. Captain Spotty was also alright and of course I must mention Bingo Ballbreaker, he may not be the smartest of all the clowns, but he sure is the hardest to kill.

Would I read more? Yes I would, now that I know that is more humor than horror. I just need to be in the right mood for more. And, I do hope if it will be more Clownfellas books that Vinne Blue Nose will be in it!

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

 About Carlton Mellick III

Carlton Mellick III is an oafish gentleman with the stylishest of sideburns. He is one of the leading authors in the bizarro fiction genre—a booming underground movement that strives to bring weird, crazy, entertaining literature to the masses. Imagine a mixture of David Lynch, Dr. Seuss, South Park, and Troma movies. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Carlton Mellick III’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, July 13th: For the Love of Fictional Worlds

Wednesday, July 15th: PromoteHorror.com

Wednesday, July 15th: Wildfire Books

Monday, July 20th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Tuesday, July 21st: Wag the Fox – author interview

Thursday, July 23rd: The Qwillery

Friday, July 24th: From the TBR Pile

Monday, July 27th: W. A. R. G. – The Writer’s, Artist’s & Reader’s Guild

Wednesday, July 29th: Mallory Heart Reviews

Thursday, July 30th: Bibliotica

Monday, August 3rd: Bewitched Bookworms

Wednesday, August 5th: It’s a Mad Mad World

Friday, August 7th: Life is Story

TBD: The Scary Reviews

TBD: Bell, Book & Candle

TBD: Kari J. Wolfe

TBD: The Horror Honeys

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Mellick puts a new spin on mob life by creating a world where clowns are the kings of the criminal underworld. The six stories all link to the Bozo family, kingpins of Little Bigtop where they rule the illegal comedy clubs, clown brothels and laughing gas trade. With the French clown mob now muscling in on the action it's up to the clown capos to ensure that business is kept lucrative and any problems swiftly dealt with.

There's some great world building in this book, the author seems to have had all kinds of fun modifying aspects of mob life into a believable and engaging world. One where laughing bullets cause you to laugh yourself to death, hats and balloons are used as weapons and if you're not born a clown you can become one by drinking 'Happy Juice'.

Characters were a little bit hit and miss with Vinnie Blue Nose being by far my favourite clown and I wished he had featured more heavily in the stories. During the first story it was hard to keep track of all the different clowns but as the stories continued they stood out a lot more with Mellick giving some of them character growth.

Only one story wasn't as engaging, the story of Buggy Buttons was not up to the standard of the other stories, Buggy was not a likeable character and I ended up feeling impatient to get done with the story and back to the other clowns.

Mellick's has created another amazing read, it's a world that I hope we see more of in the future so I sincerely hope this is not the last we hear of Vinnie Blue Nose and co.

Highly recommended.