RaveLos Angeles Review of BooksTold in short, deft chapters that include both Darger and the killer’s perspectives (which may or may not be one and the same), the novel pays as much attention to narrative twists and turns as it does to the delights of burgeoning modernity ... Curious Toys is chockablock with engrossing historical asides ... Darger’s artistic preoccupations, as well as his many eccentricities, could become clunky plot-weights in other hands, but Hand gives his unreliability a chiaroscuro quality. We are not sure whether to trust him, but like Pin, we want to. The novel’s overarching ambience of terror is never sacrificed during its more idiosyncratic historical detours. \'Dark ride\' doesn’t just describe the lurid indoor amusements contained in Hell Gate—it’s an apt summary of Curious Toys and all its shadowy diversions. These crop up in herky-jerky rhythms, lurching out at the reader like midway barkers or costumed nightmares stalking a haunted house. Behind the carnival facades and film sets, the sense of dread is all too real.
