Ask a Bookseller: ‘One of Us’ by Dan Chaon

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers across Minnesota and beyond to find out what books they’re most excited about right now Jeff Danz of Zandbros Variety in Sioux Falls, S.D., was looking for some escapist fiction when he was drawn to the story of a traveling carnival. He calls Dan Chaon’s gothic horror novel “One of Us” an engaging read with compelling characters that felt like a darker version of a Mark Twin or Charles Dickens adventure. Set in 1915, the novel follows 13-year-old twins Eleanor and Bolt, who have a flawless ability to read each other's minds. When their mother dies, leaving them orphaned, a rather terrifying man calling himself their Uncle Charlie shows up to adopt them. They quickly realize Charlie is a con man who expects them to help with his schemes, and the children devise an escape. They find themselves on an orphan train, traveling through the Midwest with dwindling hopes of being chosen, when a man in a red waistcoat with gold epaulets appears and tells the children “I see you.” He is Mr. Jengling, and he adopts them into the world of Mr. Jengling’s Emporium of Wonders. The traveling carnival world offers a new family in a sometimes-brutal American frontier, as well as opportunities that may cause the twins to grow apart. And Uncle Charlie is on their trail... “It ends,” he said, “in an unexpected way that is satisfying, in that it connects a lot of things. It kept me interested the whole time.”