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Freaks: A Novel (Freaks, 1) Paperback – March 1, 2022

by Brett Riley (Author)

3.8 31 ratings

Book 1 of 3: Freaks

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Hunted by monsters. Wanted for questioning. Late for class.

Four high-school friends suffer daily humiliation at the hands of three bullies. When the friends accidentally open a portal to another dimension, they unintentionally allow terrifying, other-worldly creatures to invade their small Arkansas town. Discovering that they are now endowed with strange superpowers, the four teens dub themselves “Freaks,” the very name their tormentors used to ridicule them. The Freaks must fight to save the lives of family and friends now in mortal peril and thwart a secret government task force that appears to be hunting them.

From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A great spin on the superhero story, told with genuine depth.“—Mark Waid, best-selling author of History of the Marvel Universe, Doctor Strange, and Superman Birthright.
"Fast paced storytelling, and life lessons that are imparted as the Freaks face ongoing challenges that threaten their very existence."—Don Sauer, PopCultureGuy
“A fun and fresh twist on the superhero story! Fast-paced, strong characters, and twists and turns make this a must read!“—Jennifer Brody/Vera Strange, author of The 13th Continuum Trilogy, Spectre Deep 6, and the Disney Chills series
“With Freaks, Brett Riley has accomplished something very few YA authors have: freakishly good writing, freakishly relatable characters, freakishly awesome premise — all making for a freakishly great read.“—M. P. Kozlowsky, author of Frost, and Rose Coffin
“Freaks is propulsive and brilliantly written, with compelling characters and plenty of action.“—Scott Bergstrom, author of The Cruelty and The Greed.
“Freaks begins at top speed and never lets up until the final page. Like some fascinating blend of Stranger Things and X-Men, Brett Riley’s novel explores what power means and how it is best wielded, making the book both timely and timeless. A fantastic read!“—Kevin Waltman, author of Nowhere Fast, Learning the Game and Next.

About the Author

Brett Riley is a professor of English at the College of Southern Nevada. He grew up in southeastern Arkansas and earned his Ph.D. in contemporary American fiction and film at Louisiana State University. His short fiction has appeared in numerous publications including Folio, The Wisconsin Review, and The Baltimore Review. Riley’s debut novel, Comanche, was released in September 2020, and Lord of Order was published in April 2021. Riley is currently finishing Travelers, the second book in the Freaks Superhero series. Travelers will be in stores and online in August 2022. He has also won numerous awards for screen writing. He lives in Henderson, Nevada.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Imbrifex Books (March 1, 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 296 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1945501936
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1945501937
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 12 years and up
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 7 and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.95 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,711,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #734 in Teen & Young Adult Loners & Outcasts Fiction
- #1,099 in Teen & Young Adult Superhero Fiction
- #5,466 in Teen & Young Adult Friendship Fiction

Customer Reviews:
3.8 31 ratings

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Brett Riley

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I write fiction, nonfiction, screenplays, and occasional (and possibly bad) poetry. I live in Las Vegas and teach literature, creative writing, and composition at the College of Southern Nevada. I've also worked at LSU (where I earned my Ph.D), the University of Alabama, the University of Louisiana-Monroe, and Baton Rouge Community College. I live with my wife, Dr. Kalene Westmoreland; our daughter, Maya; our dog, Nilla; and our cats, Cookie McSnowshoe and Tora.

A word on punctuation: In my adult fiction, I don't use quotation marks. (I do use them in my nonfiction and young-adult work.) I've been writing like that for the better part of two decades, but I am neither the first nor only writer to do so. Others who don't use marks in some or all of their works include James Joyce, Cormac McCarthy, E.L. Doctorow, Charles Frazier, Junot Diaz, David Guterson, Sigrid Nunez, Roddy Doyle, Viet Thahn Nguyen, Ling Ma, Lauren Groff, Marlon James, Grace Paley, and George Saunders. I'm sure every writer has their own reasons for using or not using any mark of punctuation. I have mine. If you're interested in why, drop me a line.

THE LATEST RILEY-RELATED MATERIAL

Lord of Order Book Trailer: https://vimeo.com/547724941

Freaks Book Trailer: https://player.vimeo.com/video/574544795?loop=1

Comanche Book Trailer: https://player.vimeo.com/video/574144691?loop=1

BOOKS

Rubicons: a Freaks Novel--young adult novel (Imbrifex Books, forthcoming 2023)

Travelers: a Freaks Novel--young adult novel (Imbrifex Books, forthcoming 2022)

Freaks–young adult novel (Imbrifex Books, forthcoming 2022)

Lord of Order–novel (Imbrifex Books, forthcoming April 6th, 2021)

Comanche–novel (Imbrifex Books)

The Subtle Dance of Impulse and Light–short story collection (Ink Brush Press, April 2013)

SHORT FICTION

“Golgotha”—Big Muddy, an Interdisciplinary Journal of the Mississippi River Valley 9.1

“Lost and Found”—First Class 35.2

“Hot Wheels for Jesus”—Big Muddy, an Interdisciplinary Journal of the Mississippi River Valley 12.1 (story published under the name Brendan West-Moreland)

“Old Shoes”—Metal Scratches issue 13

“The Cat in the Backyard”—Folio fall 2010/spring 2011 issue

“The Hair on His Cape”—The Evansville Review Vol. XXII

“A Face to Die For”—Blue Lake Review June 2012 update

“Doing It Like a Man”—The Wisconsin Review 46.2

“Hook” (short story)—Allegory 18.45 spring/summer 2012

“An Ending”—Separate Worlds Jan./Feb. 2013 update

“An Element of Blank”—The Evansville Review vol. XXIII (2013)

“Fifth and Cedar”—Red Rock Review 32 (fall 2013)

“Doesn’t Mean They’re not Out to Get You”—The Broadkill Review 4.4

“The Security System”—The Broadkill Review 4.5

“An Anecdote”—The Broadkill Review 5.1

“Dated” —The Broadkill Review 5.2

“A Transcript Found on My Hard Drive (I)”—The Broadkill Review 5.3

“Just Because You’re Paranoid”—The Broadkill Review 5.4

“Phone Tag” —The Mochila Review Vol. 14 (2012)

“Orville’s Song”–The Variety Show, 8-11-2015

“What Lies in Ambush”–Solstice Literary Magazine fall/winter issue 2016

“An Element of Blank” (reprint): Nth Degree featured story

“Far Away from the Path and a Little Bit Lost”–Ghost Town

“Hyacinth”–The Broadkill Review 31 October 2017 update

“Everyone Here Comes from Somewhere Else”–The Courtship of Winds winter 2018

“Closed for Storm”–The Baltimore Review winter 2018

“Salvation Is a Joke with no Punchline”–Solstice Literary Magazine

“Mating Behaviors of Urban White Males in the Southern United States”–Bluestem

“Summer Home”–f(r)iction

“Thy Rod and Thy Staff”–West Trade Review

“Alien”–The Barcelona Review

“After We’re Gone”–Madville Publishing’s Runaway Anthology

"The Long-Promised Return of One-Eye Battle"--Love in the Dunes Anthology

SCREENPLAYS

Candy’s First Kiss

Grand Prize Winner in the Horror/Sci-Fi genre, New York Screenplay Contest

Third Place, 2014 London Film Awards Screenwriting Competition

Gold Prize Winner, Horror genre, 2014 Beverly Hills Screenplay Contest

Honorable Mention, 2014 WeScreenplay International Screenwriting Competition

Grand Prize in Horror, 2015 Hollywood Screenplay Contest

CREATIVE NONFICTION

“My Resistance Is not the Same as Your Hate” (essay)–Role Reboot

“When White Privilege Is a Matter of Life and Death” (essay)–Role Reboot

“Assault, Bigotry, and Self-Hatred: Not All Wounds Bleed” (essay)–Role Reboot

“Some Jokes Just Aren’t Funny” (essay)–Foliate Oak Magazine

“Past, Present, Popcorn” (essay)–Wild Violet

“We Are All Las Vegas, But We Don’t Have to Be” (essay)–Role Reboot

“Floating the Yacht” (essay)–Rougarou

“Was This Trip Really Necessary?” (essay)–Green Hills Literary Lantern

“Why I Won’t Be Watching the Roseanne Reboot” (essay)–Role Reboot

“The True Horror of Hereditary: Patriarchy” (essay)–Role Reboot

“Why You Need to See the Mister Rogers Documentary” (essay)–Role Reboot

“BlacKkKlansman and the American Past That’s Still Present” (essay)–Role Reboot

“A Tale of Two Women: On Joan Jett and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford” (essay)–Role Reboot

“Halloween 2018: A Horror Film for the #TimesUp Era” (essay)–Role Reboot

“Bohemian Rhapsody‘s Fumbling Representations of Sexuality” (essay)–Role Reboot

“Dumbo and Me” (essay)–Literary Orphans

“The Golden Globes: A Celebration of Diversity, Sort Of” (essay)–Role Reboot

“Gillette Is Right, Guys; We Can Get Better” (essay)–Role Reboot

“The 2019 Grammys: A Soundtrack for Change” (essay)–Role Reboot

“The 2019 Oscars: An Improved Show with a Few Huge Missteps” (essay)–Role Reboot

“Meeting a Familiar Enemy: Jordan Peele’s Us” (essay)–Role Reboot

“The Best of Enemies: It’s Still All about Whiteness” (essay)–Role Reboot

“Dreaming in Stereo” (essay)–under the gum tree

“Re-Reading Avengers #1-10 from a Contemporary Perspective” (essay)–F(r)iction Log

“Searching for Haunted Fiction in American Literature” (essay)–CrimeReads

“Just Talk to Her, Dude” (essay)–Broad River Review

"The Functions of Friction and Surface Tension" (essay)--Barely South Review

"The Most Wildly Different Books about Deeply Flawed Teenage Protagonists" (annotated list)--shepherd.com

ACADEMIC

Separation Anxieties: Representations of Separatist Communities in 20th Century Fiction and Film (doctoral dissertation)

BOOK REVIEWS

Prophet’s Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints by Sam Brower, Concho River Review 26.1

INTERVIEWS AND SUCH

Interview conducted by JeanBookNerd for her blog: https://www.jeanbooknerd.com/2020/09/brett-riley-interview-comanche.html

Interview conducted by Courtney Harler for THE MASTERS REVIEW: https://mastersreview.com/an-interview-with-brett-riley-author-of-lord-of-order/

Interview conducted by Jeff Rutherford for THE READING AND WRITING PODCAST: http://readingandwritingpodcast.com/brett-riley-interview/

VIDEOS

Lord of Order Book Trailer: https://vimeo.com/547724941

Freaks Book Trailer: https://player.vimeo.com/video/574544795?loop=1

Comanche Book Trailer: https://player.vimeo.com/video/574144691?loop=1

Las Vegas Voice Reading, 20 December 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB3L_Mfsi8A&t=167s

Comanche Virtual Book Launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYzHly4Vnq0&t=24s

Las Vegas Book Festival 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NIPgKUxgJ8&t=28s

CONTACT ME

Visit my website at http://officialbrettriley.com

See my entire C.V. at http://officialbrettriley.com/c-v/

Visit and like Brett Riley--Author on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BrettRileyAuthor

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram: @brettwrites.

Email me at officialbrettriley@gmail.com.

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5

31 global ratings

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Mikelikesbooks

From High School friends to Superheroes

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2024

High School friends get bullied. They stumble into opening up another dimension full of monsters that feed on humans, but also they gain super powers. Then the real action begins as they try to save the world. It was a fun story.

Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2023

The first book in the series. 3 books all together.
This book kinda feels like a superhero origin story but also a book on revenge. It has so many mixed things going on.
It is def entertaining.
It's def a YA book. I think a lot of young readers will like it. It has aspects of magic and horror.

I am glad to have the opportunity to read this book, thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. The above is my opinion, which are honest and voluntary.

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Corinne

Feels like a Comic Books

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2022

*Some Minor Spoilers Ahead*
Tensions are running high in this dark and creepy superhero-esque novel. Being the victims of a group of bullies has set Gabby, Jamie, Micah, and Christian on edge. As the bullying gets worse, Micah turns to some dark magic—but it's all for fun, right? Some masks, robes, and an innocent game of LARPING later and the foursome may have just unleashed murderous creatures from another dimension on their small town.
Luckily for them, they were also recipients of some powers, including their biggest bully, Kenneth. I loved that twist—as the murderous creatures terrorize the town, the bullied and the bully may have to come to some sort of agreement to kill the creature they released. The group dynamic was brilliantly done, I thought, giving each person a role and of course having a really diverse cast of characters in a small, southern town. Not only did this novel touch on general teenage life and bullying, but on what it is like being an outcast, and becoming an outcast for a host of different reasons.
The adventure was great, the action was awesome, and I couldn't put this book down when I was reading. It wasn't just the intrigue of the murderous creature, but the cast of characters that really made me feel invested in every page, hoping that things turned out OK - even for the characters I didn't really like in the beginning. On to Book 2!

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2023

*Trigger warnings for bullying and high school violence.

I was so pleasantly surprised by this read. I wasn't sure what to expect going in, so I had low expectations. I thought the characters were distinct enough that I never wondered who was talking or which POV we were in. I never got them confused with each other because their voices were different enough to make them their own person.

I was so uncomfortable with the violence against the children at the beginning. I know it was done to set up the bullies, and I get that these things happen, but it's part of the high school experience that I never saw or dealt with and something I hate reading about. Anyway, this friend group comes together as outcasts or freaks from their school and start "messin with things they should've left alone" :) Anyway, wildness ensues and something has been released into the world that doesn't belong. Now the friends realize they may have extra powers, and they're going to need them to fight the something that they released.

There were some jaw dropping moments that shocked me and made me stop reading for a second to process. I really enjoyed it and I'm moving right into book #2.

This is a review of the audiobook.

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2022

I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of Freaks, so I was excited to read this. But I can’t say I enjoyed it, or that I would read the sequel that was announced before the author’s debut had even been published. It wasn’t a bad novel by any means, but it wasn’t particularly good either.

The main problem was how unoriginal it was. I’m sure everyone has read at least one movie review where the critic complains that the film is a collection of ideas and scenes taken from much better movies, and this felt like the novel equivalent.

Basically another version of Uncanny X-Men #159, where the X-Men encounter Dracula, Brett Riley does himself no favors by referencing comic books again and again. Having a character mention that something is just like a comic book does not make what’s happening seem new, it just reinforces that it isn’t. And the similarities to other properties don’t end there. The story blatantly rips off the “Evil Dead” movies, “Stranger Things”, and a host of other movies, TV shows, and books. It’s one thing to pay homage to creators and properties that inspired you, but so often the constant borrowing from other sources just feels lazy and even disgraceful.

The characters are not one-dimensional, but they aren’t fully fleshed out either. I will give the author credit for putting thought into his five freaks, but even finishing the novel I kept forgetting which character was which for three of them. And while I thought it was interesting that Riley chose to make Micah, the main character (I assume, as he’s the first one we’re introduced to), so repellent, I can’t say I’ve ever read a book that I enjoyed where the main character was completely unlikable.

There were some positive things about the novel. Riley can write good action scenes, and I don’t remember any of his dialogue coming across as fake or particularly clunky, which is always a good thing. But the author had a weird tendency to have chapters leading up to a particular event or revelation, then the next chapter would take place a day or two later, which tended to kill a lot (if not all) of the momentum of the novel.

I am grateful that I was sent an ARC of this novel. And I feel good about giving the book a solid three stars. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad either.

But in all honesty, after reading this, I stopped registering on GoodReads to win future advanced readers’ copies. This pretty much put me off ARCs for at least now.

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