Monika Drake’s first novel Clown Girl unravels with a surrealistic spin through Baloneytown pulling readers into the eye of the storm with experimental prose and lyrical humor. With hipster intelligence, Clown Girl wiggles out of spots as tight as the twists in balloon animals, gleaning wisdom from Buddhists, Hopis, an acupuncturist, a cop and, always, the Clown Code of Ethics. Searching for Plucky, her absconded rubber chicken-child; Rex, the Clown prince; and Chance, her little dog, she tries to perfect her Kafka-inspired act while systematically losing everything. Sniffles—Clown Girl’s real name, or is it Nita?—narrowly averts disasters such as burning down her house with flaming batons, being admitted to a psychiatric ward, and getting slapped with prostitution charges for hanging out with a clown fetishist, all while trying to maintain an illusive sense of balance. Feeling like a crone who has lost to life’s comedic brutality,she realizes, “The only value of wasted time is knowledge.” Drake tenderly crafts a human tale through the lens of an orphaned Baloneytown clown who’s just looking for herself. Drake keeps the plates spinning even when all hope for Nita seems lost. The vertiginous world of Clown Girl sweeps us into a literary hurricane, but then sets us down under blue skies.