This is a fun read that challenges as well as entertains. Nov 13, KV Taylor rated it it was amazing. Weird and wonderful are usually the words where Cate Gardner who, for the record, I do count a friend is involved. She certainly doesn't disappoint there with Theatre, but I think this one is elevated by the overarching metaphor which, um, isn't a metaphor -- oh, nevermind!
She deftly uses the damage inflicted on the post WWI "lost generation" to give us a story of apocalypse like none I've ever seen before. She paints her characters with bold, large strokes 4.
THE BUREAU OF THEM
She paints her characters with bold, large strokes and a sure hand. By the end I wanted to pet Daniel and laugh at Swan and kiss Olivia -- none of which are particularly good ideas, but there we go. Their conversations don't follow a normal track -- they're more like disjointed poetry, really -- but you still get a sense of personality from their word choices and speech patterns.
They're made of up of actions that do make sense in a story and landscape that does not; it's easy not to notice how well you understand just who and what Daniel's soldier friends and Olivia and her sisters are. But you do, in spite of not having it spelled out, almost from the off.
Both that almost impartial understanding of the larger picture and the deliberate distance between the reader and the headspace of the characters means you're kind of skimming across the surface of even the most tantalizing scenes. I didn't feel a part of what was happening; I understood it and watched it unfold with a kind of sick and fun fascination. And I really needed to know how the nightmare was going to end.
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A great, weird read for fans of the bizarre and melancholy. Hang on through the first bit -- it'll all make a scary sort of sense soon enough. May 05, Hunter Shea rated it really liked it. I can honestly say I've never read anything quite like this. To say it is surreal horror just doesn't seem to be enough. Cate Gardner's prose is lyrical, her storytelling abilities magical. Once I was sucked in, much like the soldiers in the story, I couldn't and didn't want to get out.
Dark and intelligent read. View all 3 comments. Dec 08, Catherine Cavendish rated it it was amazing. This is the story of Daniel Cole and it is a strange tale indeed, told in the most fascinating and surreal manner that conjures up images bringing to mind Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Dali and Leonora Carrington.
Cate Gardner's skill in her use of language to paint fantastic mind pictures is best appreciated in my opinion if you simply let your mind go wherever the story leads, rather like the ferry in the story. It is a fantasy and a dark apocalyptic tale that demands mo This is the story of Daniel Cole and it is a strange tale indeed, told in the most fascinating and surreal manner that conjures up images bringing to mind Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Dali and Leonora Carrington. It is a fantasy and a dark apocalyptic tale that demands more than one reading.
Dec 05, Paul rated it it was amazing. Daniel Cole wants the world to end. A pirate ship, helmed by Death, waits to ferry some of them to the end of the world. Earlier this year, I had the Daniel Cole wants the world to end. I enjoyed it a great deal, and when the chance to read more of her work arose I jumped at it.
Like an expertly crafted piece of classical music, Theatre of Curious Acts has many layers to explore, and it works very effectively on multiple levels. It can be read as a straightforward horror story, and there is certainly enough startling imagery to please the most hardened horror fan, but there is also a psychological element in play that is just as effective. Are Daniel and his comrades alive or already dead? Just who are the strange group of women that Daniel meets on his travels? Allowing readers to draw their own conclusions is a brave decision, and makes for a far more personal and engaging experience.
Any story that begins during the horrors of The Great War is going to have a sombre tone but the Theatre of Curious Acts is much more than that. I was captivated by the strength of the writing. Daniel, still haunted by his experiences in the trenches, yearns for it all to just end. He questions his own sanity on a regular basis and there is a sequence that details his obsession with seeking out silence as this is the only way he can try to find any form of peace.
This contains one of my favourite lines of the entire story. His odyssey, and that of his brothers in arms, finds them all changed by the experiences that they share together. No one is left untouched by the torment that they all face.
theatreofcuriousacts
The striking cover art by Simone Held also deserves a mention. The lonely figure of a man standing on a bridge looking out over a desolate sea is a simple but effective image. It captures the mood of the entire story and is a perfect compliment to a perfect story. From the battlefields of Europe, to the end of the world, this novel is a seamless blend of physical and psychological horror that will leave a distinct impression. Oct 18, Gef rated it really liked it Shelves: The first page of every Cate Gardner story is a rabbit hole, through which you find yourself falling into a wonderland of her design, and Theatre of Curious Acts offers a deeper plunge into the abyss of Cate's imagination than anything of hers I've read yet.
This short novel tells the story of five soldiers cast out of one hell, of course being the Great War, and thrown into an entirely different one--fewer bullets, but more monsters. The spotlight character, Daniel, winds up on a journey with fo The first page of every Cate Gardner story is a rabbit hole, through which you find yourself falling into a wonderland of her design, and Theatre of Curious Acts offers a deeper plunge into the abyss of Cate's imagination than anything of hers I've read yet.
The spotlight character, Daniel, winds up on a journey with four brothers in arms; Swan, Harvey, George, and Ken; as they must navigate their way through a surreal nightmare inside the Theatre of Curious Acts. The theatre has a surreal nature to it, as Daniel is initially there to take in a show, but finds himself whisked onstage and into a netherworld where he and his friends are at risk of becoming trapped, or possibly destroyed.
That's because the theatre sits at the end of the world and there are powers in play that would like very much to see that happen.
Theatre of Curious Acts
The interwoven nature of Daniel's traumatic and horrific experiences in war for Britain with the supernaturally haunting aspects of what he finds inside the theatre felt surreal while reading this book. There are moments where what's happening feels murkier, encased in a shroud that only lets you see very subtle imagery or emotions, while there are moments that soon follow that feel epic in scope with a blazing intensity you might expect if the Sun got too close. As much as the relationships Daniel had with his fellow soldiers were engaging, especially his somewhat contentious relationship with Swan who comes off as a dashing cad most of the time, it was the interactions he and the others have with the Four Horsemen--or in this case, the Four Horsewomen--or maybe it's Horsepersons.
Each of the four carry such brightly contrasted personalities and have their own intentions behind what's happening, they tended to steal the show. Olivia was a particularly striking character, but I must confess to enjoying the Rowan character a bit more.
Maybe because her tone was a bit more deliciously caustic. In any case, it's a rich and undeniably bleak tapestry that Cate paints with her prose throughout this story. I'm definitely going to have to revisit it again, and hopefully glean a little more the second go round as a reader who has walked that path with its characters once before. If you like fantasy with a dark edge and a romantic, albeit desolate, air throughout, this is a book you ought to consider. Oct 31, Carole Lanham rated it it was amazing Shelves: Darkly imaginative and utterly unique, this book sucked me in the first second I fingered the moonlit beauty of it's ghostly cover.
From that point on, Gardner had me in what I can only describe as a death lock of sorts, holding my head under Theatre's murky, troubled waters until I reached the final word. We first meet Daniel Cole knee-deep in mud and death in a trench in WWI, enduring what would seem to be the lowest of all possible moments that life has to offer. But as bodies fall and pile up around him, the young solider is unexpectedly jolted by visions of a grim, mind-bending otherworld that rivals even the insanity and despair of war. What follows is a journey that is rich, complex, and magical as anything ever dreamt up by Neil Gaiman or Lewis Carroll, yet like no other journey made before.
I especially enjoyed the Four Horsewoman of the apocalypse, but Daniel is a wonderful protagonist. Throughout the story, he is equal parts confused, conflicted, and heroic, as all good men in trouble should be, and I quite liked him that way.
See a Problem?
In all honesty, my crush on this book began months before its release when I noticed that I could order a bookmark from Cate Gardner that featured its intriguing cover art. In the weeks to follow, that bookmark saved my place in every book I read and it never failed to please me when I would open the pages of whatever I was reading and find the pearly images of art-manipulating master Simone Held right there and waiting for me, beautifully holding my spot.
It made me anxious to get my hands on the real deal. This is a book for adventurous readers, make no mistake about that. Her characters are complex, her plotting and pacing feverish, and her ideas intriguing. Step inside the theatre and see for yourself. This was one of Gardner's darker works, and while it starts in a trench during WW1, you are immediately pulled through the looking glass of her imagination and into the Theatre of Curious Acts, and then on to meet the four horsewomen of the Apocalypse.
This was a wonderful and engaging story that I will be reading multiple times; it is filled with rich imagery of a strange hell that exists out of time but can go back to it.
Gardner's superb writing skills and beautifully strange imagination are on full display here. The allusions to Alice in Wonderland found throughout the book are apt: Cate Gardner is adept at creating these strange worlds where the laws of physics are topsy-turvy. At first I felt quite lost in the sea of surreal imaginings, but Cate winds all the threads together into a tight-fitting knit ball of insanity. This is a fun read that challenges as well as entertains. I kept waiting to be confused. How was I NOT confused?
The pace is staggering, the story, setting, characters make Dali's artwork seem a Disney cartoon. From the trenches of WW1 France to the end of the world, time twists around itself, drops pieces of itself, then ends up in a totally unexpected place. And yet it never stumbled over itself.
Cate Gardner's wordish acrobatics astound as much as they entertain. The Theatre of Curious Acts is dark, dank and disgusting, and so delicious I couldn't put it down. I can honestly say I've never read anything quite like this. To say it is surreal horror just doesn't seem to be enough. Cate Gardner's prose is lyrical, her storytelling abilities magical. Once I was sucked in, much like the soldiers in the story, I couldn't and didn't want to get out. This is the story of Daniel Cole and it is a strange tale indeed, told in the most fascinating and surreal manner that conjures up images bringing to mind Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Dali and Leonora Carrington.
Cate Gardner's skill in her use of language to paint fantastic mind pictures is best appreciated in my opinion if you simply let your mind go wherever the story leads, rather like the ferry in the story. It is a fantasy and a dark apocalyptic tale that demands more than one reading.
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