The Dreaming Jewels

Originally posted at FanLit.

Horty Bluett is only eight years old, but his short life has already been utterly miserable. One day, after suffering at the hands of his classmates and his adoptive parents, he runs off and joins the carnival. The only thing he carries is his sole possession ??? a jack-in-the-box doll named Junky. Junky has hard shiny eyes and Horty gets nervous and sick when Junky isn???t around.

At the carnival, Horty finally finds acceptance among some of society???s outcasts. For the first time in his life, he feels like he???s part of something ??? that he???s participating in life instead of watching it go by. As Horty gets older, he begins to realize that there???s something weird about the carnival. The man who runs it, who everyone calls Maneater, has some sort of genetic research going on and he may be a danger to Horty and to the world in general. And it all has something to do with Junky???s strange ... Read More:
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reviews.metaphorosis.com

3.5 stars

Horty is injured by his foster father and runs away, joining a carnival. With the help of a friend, he gradually discovers some unusual powers.
I continue to kick myself for not discovering Theodore Sturgeon earlier. This book is not on a topic I'd normally have considered picking up, but I found it well written and engaging throughout. The SF element is technically crucial to the concept, but in fact it's not essential to the story, which is about people and relationships.

Sturgeon lets the story down by throwing in large masses of exposition at the end - needed to explain the mechanism and mysteries of the story, but suggesting that he trapped himself at the end of the story, and didn't feel like rewriting the entire book.

Nonetheless, this is a good and enjoyable book about character and humanity. I recommend it.