Review: Show, by Shane Peacock
Show
240 pages
Release: June 7, 2025
ISBN 9781770867963
Publisher: DCB Young Readers
Shane Peacock’s CV is quite impressive: an Ontario author, journalist, screenwriter, published in 20 languages and 18 countries. He’s won a sheaf of awards, both genre and literary, and been short-listed for a GG.
His forthcoming YA novel, Show, is published by an imprint of Cormorant Books in Toronto.
First, the marketing blurb:
In an alternate 1899, farm boy Solomon Hunt leaves home after his father’s death to seek income for his family, only to stumble into the adventure of a lifetime when he rescues a young genius showman from captivity in a sideshow.
Together, the duo flee across the terrifying, entertainment-obsessed Empire of America, performing for a living while evading a group of vicious pursuers led by Leonard J. Coop, who not only dominates the Empire through his circus-like extravaganzas, but seeks to be president too.
From Buffalo to New Orleans, Denver to Los Angeles, and everywhere in between, Solomon befriends and recruits diverse young performers trapped in shows, including a human cannonball, a giant acrobat, a blues musician, an outlaw gunslinger, a talking gorilla, and more. As Coop closes in and vile secrets are revealed, the ragtag troupe reaches little Hollywood, California, where they present an explosive, groundbreaking performance intended to save them all.
All sounds vaguely current events and familiar, a thinly-veiled bit of political satire aimed at youth, full of hi-jinks, pathos, and action. Peacock very much explores the sense of freak and misfit in this story, what I couldn’t help but think of as a heavy hand wielding a sledgehammer, in order to explore what many young people experience by way of alienation and isolation, not just now, but throughout history.
Peacock then marries that pathos to what is very much a transparent political satire of Trump and the current circus the world is witnessing. There are those who might think I’m stretching things a bit. For me, however, it was all too clear this was Peacock’s way of sending a clear message to youth about the dangers of buffoonery and deceit in our leaders. And I must admit, this transparent bombardment wore a bit thin for me, in fact rankled, because I couldn’t help but feel there was a disingenuous message and vehicle here which was as much an attempt at indoctrination as any overt, government-sanctioned program, and a bit questionable on the part of a Toronto publisher of YA and children’s books. Not that I in any manner support what’s happening to our neighbours to the south. But I do get a bit squeamish about indoctrination of youth.
Having said that, the story is a passable one, mildly entertaining. The characters, despite their extraordinary appearances and abilities, are mildly identifiable. The pacing is mildly captivating. The writing is mildly engaging. The whole novel, for this reader, was just, well, mild, sort of beige, an escapist read for a few hours if you can get past the political satire.
If I still had youths in my family would I purchase this novel for them? Maybe. If I couldn’t find anything else more engaging for them at the moment. But don’t let my own tepid response be a guide for you. Go and read Show for yourself and see what you think.