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Magruder Curiosity Cabinet A Novel HP Wood Books

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Magruder Curiosity Cabinet A Novel HP Wood Books

H.P. Wood's Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet is a book you should definitely not judge by its cover, which makes it appear to be an interesting mystery set in Coney Island's heyday of amusement rides and freak shows.

It's not even close.

While the title references the center setting of the story, a museum of oddities that brought to mind the kitsch at the old Ed's Warehouse in Toronto. With added fleas.

And while many of the characters are the "freaks" somewhat promised, the story is a convoluted and often horrifying one that centers heavily on a fictionalized resurgence of the bubonic plague and a political plot. Calling it dark is an understatement, and while I do like generally like dark stories, this was unrelenting, making for a very depressing and unfulfilling read with a too-large cast of characters and a plotline that's ultimately too weak to hold up over the course of the novel.

I did give it an additional star simply for the portrayal of a gender-nonconforming character that was central to the plot and had realistic reactions from other characters as well as a matter-of-fact simplicity.


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Magruder Curiosity Cabinet A Novel HP Wood Books Reviews

{Many thanks to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet in exchange for an honest review.}

I had a hard time putting a finger on what Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet by H.P. Wood was about. A young girl named Kitty who is wandering the streets of Coney Island in search of her family? Zeph, a young man who runs the titular curiousities museum? About a third of the way in, this book hit its stride and I figured it out - a plague is loose on Coney Island during tourist season.

Maybe it's the cover or the title, but apparently this book has been confused with a children's book enough to warrant a "** Not a Children's or YA book **" notice on its Goodreads page. This novel has a mystical air and is about the child-friendly Coney Island, but is most certainly a novel for adults.

This novel follows the adventures of Kitty, Zeph, and a varied cast of characters who live and work in Coney Island's side shows and amusement parks. That alone would have been fascinating, but instead they are tasked with enduring the plague hitting the island and taking care of each other. It felt manufactured for some reason.

The sense of community in this book is striking, as is the vivacity and humor of Wood's characters. It felt like a snap shot of a unique time and place in our history.
Seventeen-year-old Kitty was supposed to fulfill the last wish of her beloved brother when she came to Coney Island with her mother. Their vacation ended abruptly when her mother went missing and Kitty became a hungry orphan. Luckily, she was offered food by a suave old gentleman, but as you might have guessed, nothing in Coney Island, candies and hamburgers especially, were free.

On the Island, Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet was a plain sight that attracted few eyeballs, and few would imagine the peculiar Unusuals behind the doors the legless youth who read Du Bois and Jane Austin and appeared to be stronger than many men with legs and something else, a robot clock with a porcelain face but paints beautiful, fine art, and of course, the half-and-half, half male and half female, but with a whole heart of gold, and then the big circus drawer the weird but astonishing race of mini-chariots pulled by fleas.

Yes, fleas, I will never admit this but when they were dumped in the lake, I really wanted to tell Kitty to stop.

And after all the horror, death and black lumps growing on the neck like burned brussel sprouts, Wood sprinkled the dark humor throughout the novel like scraps of cotton candies among the circus crowd. “What is bigger than the Cough?” “Politics.”

The Tibetan and Chinese references are especially charming to me – if you smear seahorse oil on your belly, you might end up with more sons than you want. So don't try this at home! And the half-and-half, an inspiration of the Yin-Yang Man, Wood?

Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet will charm you with many quirky characters, sweet dry humor, and prevailing kindheartedness. And I have to say this, in a way, Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet reminds me of Alice in the Wonderland.
H.P. Wood's Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet is a book you should definitely not judge by its cover, which makes it appear to be an interesting mystery set in Coney Island's heyday of amusement rides and freak shows.

It's not even close.

While the title references the center setting of the story, a museum of oddities that brought to mind the kitsch at the old Ed's Warehouse in Toronto. With added fleas.

And while many of the characters are the "freaks" somewhat promised, the story is a convoluted and often horrifying one that centers heavily on a fictionalized resurgence of the bubonic plague and a political plot. Calling it dark is an understatement, and while I do like generally like dark stories, this was unrelenting, making for a very depressing and unfulfilling read with a too-large cast of characters and a plotline that's ultimately too weak to hold up over the course of the novel.

I did give it an additional star simply for the portrayal of a gender-nonconforming character that was central to the plot and had realistic reactions from other characters as well as a matter-of-fact simplicity.