The Freaks

A collective of physically disadvantaged youths gets together to improve their situation and other disadvantaged people in their society. We experience each of these characters' challenges through their eyes. It starts dramatically with their arrests by the Secret Police. Then, trace each character's story back to their childhood in a heartfelt journey. The four 'Freaks', as they call themselves, form an artists' group that does everything it can to expose the atrocities and injustices of their government. As the story progresses, the reader is left wondering who the real freaks are. The 'Freaks' come from diverse racial, sexual, political, and social backgrounds to form a coalition. Each uses their special abilities to challenge social injustices. The results are profoundly disturbing. They use art to communicate their message to their oppressors. Taunting and mocking them in often bizarre and surreal ways, leaving the reader in a wondrous garden of fantastical realities, or conversely, the horrors of a Hieronymus Bosch nightmarish hell. This is a story that gives hope and describes 'a tragedy of the commons'. A path that autocratic governments take when the governing body becomes more powerful than the needs of the governed. The novel keeps alive hope even for the most disadvantaged who can find a way to resist oppression and make right the wrongs of a world gone mad. In the end, the reader is left to question who are the real freaks.