Amanda Hocking

Amanda's Blog Post

Freeks Cover Reveal!!!!

July 21st, 2016 by
This post currently has 17 comments

I have a new cover to share with you, and all kinds of info about it, and I’m so excited, so let’s just get to it:

Here’s the official description:

Welcome to Gideon Davorin’s Traveling Sideshow, where necromancy, magical visions, and pyrokinesis are more than just part of the act…

Mara has always longed for a normal life in a normal town where no one has the ability to levitate or predict the future. Instead, she roams from place to place, cleaning the tiger cage while her friends perform supernatural feats every night.

When the struggling sideshow is miraculously offered the money they need if they set up camp in Caudry, Louisiana, Mara meets local-boy Gabe…and a normal life has never been more appealing.

But before long, performers begin disappearing and bodes are found mauled by an invisible beast. Mara realizes that there’s a sinister presence lurking in the town with its sights set on getting rid of the sideshow freeks. In order to unravel the truth before the attacker kills everyone Mara holds dear, she has seven days to take control of a power she didn’t know she was capable of―one that could change her future forever.

Freeks - Final Cover US
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Bullet points:
Freeks is a stand-alone novel, meaning it starts and finishes in a single book with no sequels or prequels or anything.
Freeks will be out January 3, 2017 in hardcover and ebook.
It’s young adult paranormal romance set in the 1980s
I pitched it as Pretty in Pink meets The Lost Boys but with absolutely no vampires
The soundtrack for Freeks (which is the playlist I created to listen to while writing the book) is my absolute favorite of all time. I’ll post another blog about it in the future going more in depth, but for now, you can check it out: here. The idea for the book was actually solidified while listening to “Hush” by the Limousines.
The hit Netflix series Stranger Things is definitely inspired by many, many of the same things that inspired me to write Freeks (although the two stories are vastly different). So if you like Stranger Things, you may enjoy Freeks

For those of you who want  more background on Freeks, it is totally my baby. I started writing it several years ago, actually, before I wrote the Kanin Chronicles. It was after the Watersong series had started coming out, and that series didn’t do as well as I’d hoped, and I’d been obsessing over the whole publishing industry and so focused on the business side of writing I’d really lost sight of actually enjoying the process.

So I sat back and I said to myself, “What do you want to write about? Who cares if people read it or it’s good or anything? What interests you?” So that’s how Freeks started, with me writing a book just for myself filled with things I love, which is how the book ended up set in 1987. The number one inspiration for the book (aside from Pretty in Pink and The Lost Boys) were old pulpy horror novels I used to get at rummage sales when I was a kid, along with V. C. Andrews and Stephen King (to name a few).

I ended up stepping back from Freeks for awhile to work on the Kanin Chronicles, but when I went back to it, I loved it just as much as I had before. To this date, it’s my favorite thing I’ve ever ever written (and I think it will be for a long time to come). It was a whole lot of fun, and I really found writing a stand alone to be very freeing – I didn’t have to worry about holding back or what to put in or save for the next book. It’s all there.

The title for Freeks is deliberately misspelled. In the book, an act of vandalism against Mara and her family comes in the form of the word of “freeks” being spray painted on their home, and that’s where the title came from. (It’s also a subtle nod to Pet Semetary.)

So, anyway, I couldn’t be more excited for Freeks to spring forth into the world. I genuinely really and truly love this book, and I think many of you will, too.

Leave a Reply to Rebecca Yoder Cancel reply

  • Alicia S. says:

    I am absolutely shocked when you mention that the Watersong series did not do as well as you had hoped. I just finished reading them and I LOVE your writing. You had me as soon as I read the first Trylle book several years ago. I am so excited for this new book. I am about to begin Virtue, and I cannot tell you how excited I am. Please keep doing what you are doing…making GREAT stories for people to fall in love with.

  • Shelly C. says:

    Are you doing arcs for reviews?

  • Celeste Charlet says:

    I am so excited, January can’t get here fast enough! I love all your books(Watersong my all time fave) and can’t wait to read the book you most enjoyed writing!

  • Gonna wet myself with excitement. Problem is I have to wait another 5 months till it come out:( ah well. I have yet to read “the hollows” series so I’ll read that for now. Love the cover!

  • This book needs to be out already. Oh well, another reason to anticipate 2017. Amazing cover by the way. The design is epic.

  • Rebecca Yoder says:

    I love the fact that you enjoyed writing this book so much. I’m looking forward to reading it for that reason.

  • Jinx King says:

    I’m so excited for this book! The cover is making me drool!

  • Always best when you can write what you really enjoy. Best of luck. 💐

  • Rhyannon Wynne says:

    So excited for this! I love your books and i just finished watching stranger things and i love pretty in pink, so I’m sure i’ll love this 🙂

  • Georgia says:

    So excited! I’m so happy that you’re writing what you want to write, and I cannot wait to read it 😀