Featured in Amazon.com's Best Books of 2018
Featured in Cosmopolitan.co.uk's Best Books of 2018
'Every day we put fire and swords and electricity into our bodies, throw knives at them, contort them, wrap them in snakes, and every day we wake up sure those things won't harm us but also sure that there is so much else that will.'
When her mother had a series of strokes, Tessa Fontaine couldn't stand to watch her mother disappear. The Electric Woman tells Tessa's story of joining America's last travelling freak show, and learning to perform death-defying acts in order to come to terms with her mother's illness. In her life-affirming memoir, Tessa finds hope and companionship among sword swallowers and snake charmers.
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A Cosmopolitan Book of 2018; New York Times Editors' Choice, An Amazon Editors' Top 100 of 2018; An Amazon Best Memoir/Biography of 2018; A Refinery29 Best Book of 2018; A BBC Book to Read in May
'This is an assured debut that doesn't shy away from the task of holding the ordinary and otherworldly in its hand, at once. It's herein that the book's power lies... The quiet beauty of this book lies in its ordinary, enigmatic human feats of interpersonal connection.' --The New York Times
'A glorious, sequinned affirmation of life and vitality...' --The Spectator
'Fascinating ... This remarkable, beautifully written memoir explores the depth of mother-daughter love and the courageous acts of overcoming fear and accepting change.' --Publishers Weekly, starred review
'Fascinating and heartfelt, Fontaine's memoir brushes with death but, more important, finds life and light in unexpected places, giving value to otherness in an unpredictable world.' --Booklist
'Come for the carnie life, stay for the courageous account of facing fear.' --BookPage
'Fontaine smashes together two distinct memoirs, one focused on grieving her mother's prolonged illness and death, the other her unlikely, brave'n'crazy season as a small-time carnival performer ... As exciting as the snake handling, card tricks, and secret rituals of the carnival's insides are, it is the grinding journey of mom-grief that will resonate with readers ... Take a walk on the wild side, why dontcha?' --Library Journal
'In a word: wow. I read The Electric Woman in a hallucinatory fever filled with hospital beds and carnival rides, gray eyes and biting boa constrictors, brain bleeds and headless bodies, fire eaters and electrified women. Tessa Fontaine is a real-life snake charmer--her writing hooked and hypnotized me from page one. I had to read just one more chapter, just one more until I reached the end of her extraordinary memoir, dismayed that it was over but so grateful for the unforgettable ride.' --Susannah Cahalan, author of Brain on Fire
'Somewhere between knives and fire beats the heart of a young woman daring herself to live. In her memoir, The Electric Woman, Tessa Fontaine weaves her way through a mother-death story and a daughter-coming-alive story against the backdrop of America's last traveling sideshow. There are so many ways to bring ourselves back to life. So many people along the way who become our secular guardian angels. This story is a breathtaking, fire-eating, heart-stopping, death-defying thrill.' --Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Book of Joan
'This is a memoir like no other. One in which reinvention means starting out as a heartbroken girl and becoming a fire eater, a snake charmer, an escape artist, an electric woman. These are not metaphors, and yet again they are: expertly developed, sustained, and revealed in intensifying and sometimes terrifying complexity, as Tessa Fontaine enters, embraces, and finally allows herself to be transformed by the carnival's World of Wonders and the unforgettable cast of characters who calls the sideshow home.' --Pam Houston, author of Contents May Have Shifted
'Yes, I have done it. I have run away to the circus, a realm of wonder, harsh reality, and colorful characters, vividly described by a remarkable writer who pulls off her own high-wire act with honesty and abandon, moving from loss to delight. In The Electric Woman, Tessa Fontaine is an escape artist determined to detonate the grim reality of mere existence, taking us on the most original journey I can remember in a recent memoir. As she moves through guises and adventures, she learns how to become the woman her mother loves and the person she didn't think she could be: her own marvelous self.' --George Hodgman, author of Bettyville
'A beautiful and ferocious book, The Electric Woman comes packed with magnificent stories of carnival tricks, transcending the limits of the body, and the bravery of survivors and caretakers. Yet, somehow no marvel is more wondrous than the writing itself. Fontaine's memoir is a brilliant testament to family, grief, love, and the astonishing trick of being--and feeling--alive.' --Annie Hartnett, author of Rabbit Cake
'The Electric Woman is a love story, a coming-of-age, a brilliant exploration of discovery by a young woman ultimately set free by the flames of fire.' --Leslie Zemeckis, author of Goddess of Love Incarnate
'With fearless grace and piercing intensity, Tessa Fontaine juxtaposes the thrill of eating fire with the luminous mystery of her mother's devastating strokes and harrowing transformations. I have never read a book more tender or more true. We all live in a World of Wonders, a world of terror. The Electric Woman delivers us to the potent mercy of unmitigated love, the passion of shared suffering, the resilience of the spirit, and the ecstasies of our transfigurations. The heart breaks, and breaks open--in the divine light of despair, we discover radiant joy: the hidden holiness of every breath, every being, every moment.' --Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts
'The Electric Woman is a fascinating behind-the-scenes peek at carnival life, and an ode to unconditional love.' --Erin Kodicek
Tessa's other work has appeared in other journals such as PANK and Seneca Review. Tessa holds an MFA from the University of Alabama and is currently a PhD student in creative writing at the University of Utah, where she is working on a novel.
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