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Carnival
The locals were ecstatic when the carnival pulled into Holland, Nebraska. They shrieked in delight on the lightning-fast rides. They gasped in shocked fascination at the chilling collection of freaks and human oddities. But all the while, piercing red eyes glared out at the townies from the shadows of the midway. Eyes that burned with vengeful hatred. Eyes that lusted...for blood!
Only Mayor Margin Holland and his beautiful teenaged daughter Linda could feel the air of "wrongness" that hovered over the fairgrounds. Then the killings began -- and their worst nightmares quickly came to life. Night after night a new victim was found, his insides smoldering, his face contorted in a gruesome death mask of hideous agony. Soon, for Martin, for Linda, for the entire plagued community, there was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Nebo's Carnival of Dread had come to town. And the horror show was just beginning!
Only Mayor Margin Holland and his beautiful teenaged daughter Linda could feel the air of "wrongness" that hovered over the fairgrounds. Then the killings began -- and their worst nightmares quickly came to life. Night after night a new victim was found, his insides smoldering, his face contorted in a gruesome death mask of hideous agony. Soon, for Martin, for Linda, for the entire plagued community, there was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Nebo's Carnival of Dread had come to town. And the horror show was just beginning!
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 1989
66 people are currently reading
464 people want to read
About the author
William W. Johnstone
1,041 books1,392 followersWilliam W. Johnstone is the #1 bestselling Western writer in America and the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of hundreds of books, with over 50 million copies sold. Born in southern Missouri, he was raised with strong moral and family values by his minister father, and tutored by his schoolteacher mother. He left school at fifteen to work in a carnival and then as a deputy sheriff before serving in the army. He went on to become known as "the Greatest Western writer of the 21st Century." Visit him online at WilliamJohnstone.net.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
October 19, 2016
2.5 Stars
"I think I'll just go to the fairgrounds. The carnival's in town, you know?"
Well......the set up was enticing with anticipation of the carnival coming, the town's people experiencing hallucinations, odd sensations, and some even dread as the trucks arrived.....and the book cover is excellent.....so scary......but not much frightening here.
After Part One, the story moved way too slowly with redundant descriptions of scantily defined characters, and a plot that just kind of fell apart trying to do too much......horror with gore, western with cowboys, ghost story with revengeful apparitions, naked women running around, and a rich main protagonist who is an ex-army tough guy with a weird wife and predictable new tough girl love interest named Frenchy. (no kidding)
With such a great premise, I did stay with it hoping it would get back on track, but unfortunately, it turned out to be a very long and disappointing (buddy) read in desperate need of editing. (IMHO)
July 22, 2021
Small-Town horror at its most Small-Towniest. "Carnival" consists almost entirely of Nebraska rednecks posturing with each other and making a lot of meaningless threats. Even our so-called heroes act like 12-year-olds on the playground. Everyone is constantly threatening to kick someone's ass. For example, when our esteemed mayor and deputy sheriff confront a intoxicated rancher at the titular carnival, instead of preventing the drunk from driving off under the influence in his truck, they simply tell him to "git" or "I find you in town tonight, and I’ll pull you over and run a breath and blood test on you. And then I’ll toss you in jail—one way or the other—with enough knots on your head and tickets hanging around your red neck to keep you there." And of course the drunk rancher says something like "I'd like to see you try," and the mayor is like "Any time, any place, Slim," and the drunk is like "Oh yeah?" and the mayor is like "Yeah!" I started to zone out at all the nonsensical hillbilly banter which all rang in my mind something like:
"Man, I'm a gonna bus you up so fast a ring a ding dang dern that you're a gonna dang ding dunga ding dong doon, know wuddimean? A ding dern dingy ding dang, arrivederci a ding dang, a dern dippy dern darn dern! And one more thing--a hot diggity ding dong done doth dern didda rootin' tootin' scootin' ding-a-ling ding! A flim-flam ding a ding dong, a hooptie digga ding dong derp ... Garsh darn diggity ding dang dern!"
Seriously, dear reader, this is about what to expect out of this outing brought to us by William Johnstone, beloved purveyor of smutty horror and pulp westerns from the heyday of mass market paperbacks. I could not help wondering if the editors of Underground Press, who published the e-book copy that I read for this review, did not possibly contribute to making this mess a whole lot sloppier. For example, somewhere early in the book, a character is described as a "strick vegetarian." Was "strick" a typo from the electronic transfer? Or is this an original bit of Johnstone's exquisite mastery of the English language? Somehow, I suspect the latter to be the case, as "strick vegetarian" sounds right on par with other amateur spellings I've encountered in past readings, such as "supposably" instead of "supposedly," and "prostate" instead of "prostrate."
But then there's the unforgivable confusion over who is speaking during an exchange of dialogue. Consider the following exchange, dear reader:
“Hurry, Audie!” Gary yelled. “We’re losing it.”
Gary fumbled with the 35mm and aimed it at the ceiling. He got off a series of shots before the face finally faded into nothing. The ceiling was bare, void of any burn marks.
Gary lowered the camera, still staring at the ceiling. “What? ...” was all he could say.
“I don’t know,” Gary said. “But it was there. I saw it.”
Did you catch who was doing or saying what thing, dear reader? If you did, please explain it to me. This kind of thing happens several times throughout the book, and again, this seems an awfully strange sort of typo on the part of editors, and points to these being original mistakes by the author that were preserved intentionally or not.
The other thing that irked me was that I was enjoying how the villainous supernatural threat was set up in the first act as rather sympathetic, only to have my initial investment in the bad guys and their back stories squandered away. By the second half of the book, the author threw any interesting nuance out the window in favor of more cliched motives. The main antagonist starts off as a conflicted soul with some apparent goodness and sympathy for justice, and then devolves into a stereotypical evil-doer who relishes in just doing naughty things. That's a real shame, because the story could have had a far greater emotional impact if it had maintained its original course.
"But Warren, you dingity ding-a-ling, you!" I hear you protest, "you must have liked this book because you gave the dern darn thing dinga-douche durpin' three stars!"
Why, yes I did! How about that? Well, despite the fact that all of the above flaws can make this a fairly difficult book to read at times, they also somehow imbue the whole affair with a kind of amateur "can-do" spirit that is rather charming, like watching an Ed Wood film. And I must confess that there are some particularly effective scares to be found in this book, as well as some disturbing and gruesome imagery that will surely please the horror community. In addition, I am a sucker for carnivals, fairgrounds, circuses, magic shows, freak shows, staged haunted houses, and theme parks. I think they are magical places with timeless thrills, but there is a darkness and even a sadness about most of these venues that make for perfect horror fiction settings. If you are like-minded, "Carnival" is your kind of book.
There are moments of surprising depth beneath the multiple scenes of Marlboro men playing rock 'em-sock 'em. I was particularly impressed by one scene of marital discord that seemed to come out of the blue for the reader as much as it did for the protagonist, which escalated into tragedy out of what seemed to be at first a mere triviality but which actually was born from years of miscommunication and unspoken resentments. So sometimes this book could veer from ridiculous camp to brutal reality in the flick of a few pages.
I also appreciated the moments of surreal comedy found in smatterings throughout the narrative. These mostly were born from the odd behavior of the townsfolk who are in a state of mesmerism after the titular carnival cruises into town. There's a scene where a 10-year-old girl is picked up by her parents after a hospital evaluation that is written with superb comedic timing, reminding me of a Monty Python skit.
And overall, as much as this book is sheer untamed revelry in adolescent fantasy, it bridges the gap towards deeper truths in its portrayal of the ferocity of a much older Midwest in the days of cowboys and endless grasslands in contrast to the all-American Main Street and apple pie culture of the suburban sprawl that had begun to undulate across the prairies well by the time this book was penned. The very real echoes of time are brought to life by this supernatural fictional narrative. The older locals of the town of Holland, Nebraska, are not very far removed from their gritty and lawless pasts, while trying desperately to shed the boots and Stetsons in favor of a more cultured and civilized modern society, a society where wealth and not virtue is what dictates class, and where anything other than "whiteness" is deemed as "other" and thus must be destroyed. When a carnival rolls into town, the populace are reminded of their previous selves, when they behaved as less than animals, and they must face final retribution for their hubris. For the townsfolk had mobbed and burned down a carnival decades before in an act of herd mentality that even the livestock they manage could never be capable, and it seems the ghosts of that carnival are back to wreck vengeance with one last fateful tour. But must the innocent also suffer with the wicked? Only by picking up this book will you know the answers.
But dang nabbit, I wish I could recommend this book more highly. I did find the whole product fairly enjoyable, and when the book was good, it was really good. But there were just too many flaws to rank this offering into the classics of the genre. If you are a Johnstone fan or an all-around horror aficionado and have not yet read this one, then I suppose you better get to it. If you are not a "strick" horror fan, you may be better off looking elsewhere as this is certainly far from "The Greatest Show on Earth."
SCORE: A solid three gad-dern dippity derps!
"Man, I'm a gonna bus you up so fast a ring a ding dang dern that you're a gonna dang ding dunga ding dong doon, know wuddimean? A ding dern dingy ding dang, arrivederci a ding dang, a dern dippy dern darn dern! And one more thing--a hot diggity ding dong done doth dern didda rootin' tootin' scootin' ding-a-ling ding! A flim-flam ding a ding dong, a hooptie digga ding dong derp ... Garsh darn diggity ding dang dern!"
Seriously, dear reader, this is about what to expect out of this outing brought to us by William Johnstone, beloved purveyor of smutty horror and pulp westerns from the heyday of mass market paperbacks. I could not help wondering if the editors of Underground Press, who published the e-book copy that I read for this review, did not possibly contribute to making this mess a whole lot sloppier. For example, somewhere early in the book, a character is described as a "strick vegetarian." Was "strick" a typo from the electronic transfer? Or is this an original bit of Johnstone's exquisite mastery of the English language? Somehow, I suspect the latter to be the case, as "strick vegetarian" sounds right on par with other amateur spellings I've encountered in past readings, such as "supposably" instead of "supposedly," and "prostate" instead of "prostrate."
But then there's the unforgivable confusion over who is speaking during an exchange of dialogue. Consider the following exchange, dear reader:
“Hurry, Audie!” Gary yelled. “We’re losing it.”
Gary fumbled with the 35mm and aimed it at the ceiling. He got off a series of shots before the face finally faded into nothing. The ceiling was bare, void of any burn marks.
Gary lowered the camera, still staring at the ceiling. “What? ...” was all he could say.
“I don’t know,” Gary said. “But it was there. I saw it.”
Did you catch who was doing or saying what thing, dear reader? If you did, please explain it to me. This kind of thing happens several times throughout the book, and again, this seems an awfully strange sort of typo on the part of editors, and points to these being original mistakes by the author that were preserved intentionally or not.
The other thing that irked me was that I was enjoying how the villainous supernatural threat was set up in the first act as rather sympathetic, only to have my initial investment in the bad guys and their back stories squandered away. By the second half of the book, the author threw any interesting nuance out the window in favor of more cliched motives. The main antagonist starts off as a conflicted soul with some apparent goodness and sympathy for justice, and then devolves into a stereotypical evil-doer who relishes in just doing naughty things. That's a real shame, because the story could have had a far greater emotional impact if it had maintained its original course.
"But Warren, you dingity ding-a-ling, you!" I hear you protest, "you must have liked this book because you gave the dern darn thing dinga-douche durpin' three stars!"
Why, yes I did! How about that? Well, despite the fact that all of the above flaws can make this a fairly difficult book to read at times, they also somehow imbue the whole affair with a kind of amateur "can-do" spirit that is rather charming, like watching an Ed Wood film. And I must confess that there are some particularly effective scares to be found in this book, as well as some disturbing and gruesome imagery that will surely please the horror community. In addition, I am a sucker for carnivals, fairgrounds, circuses, magic shows, freak shows, staged haunted houses, and theme parks. I think they are magical places with timeless thrills, but there is a darkness and even a sadness about most of these venues that make for perfect horror fiction settings. If you are like-minded, "Carnival" is your kind of book.
There are moments of surprising depth beneath the multiple scenes of Marlboro men playing rock 'em-sock 'em. I was particularly impressed by one scene of marital discord that seemed to come out of the blue for the reader as much as it did for the protagonist, which escalated into tragedy out of what seemed to be at first a mere triviality but which actually was born from years of miscommunication and unspoken resentments. So sometimes this book could veer from ridiculous camp to brutal reality in the flick of a few pages.
I also appreciated the moments of surreal comedy found in smatterings throughout the narrative. These mostly were born from the odd behavior of the townsfolk who are in a state of mesmerism after the titular carnival cruises into town. There's a scene where a 10-year-old girl is picked up by her parents after a hospital evaluation that is written with superb comedic timing, reminding me of a Monty Python skit.
And overall, as much as this book is sheer untamed revelry in adolescent fantasy, it bridges the gap towards deeper truths in its portrayal of the ferocity of a much older Midwest in the days of cowboys and endless grasslands in contrast to the all-American Main Street and apple pie culture of the suburban sprawl that had begun to undulate across the prairies well by the time this book was penned. The very real echoes of time are brought to life by this supernatural fictional narrative. The older locals of the town of Holland, Nebraska, are not very far removed from their gritty and lawless pasts, while trying desperately to shed the boots and Stetsons in favor of a more cultured and civilized modern society, a society where wealth and not virtue is what dictates class, and where anything other than "whiteness" is deemed as "other" and thus must be destroyed. When a carnival rolls into town, the populace are reminded of their previous selves, when they behaved as less than animals, and they must face final retribution for their hubris. For the townsfolk had mobbed and burned down a carnival decades before in an act of herd mentality that even the livestock they manage could never be capable, and it seems the ghosts of that carnival are back to wreck vengeance with one last fateful tour. But must the innocent also suffer with the wicked? Only by picking up this book will you know the answers.
But dang nabbit, I wish I could recommend this book more highly. I did find the whole product fairly enjoyable, and when the book was good, it was really good. But there were just too many flaws to rank this offering into the classics of the genre. If you are a Johnstone fan or an all-around horror aficionado and have not yet read this one, then I suppose you better get to it. If you are not a "strick" horror fan, you may be better off looking elsewhere as this is certainly far from "The Greatest Show on Earth."
SCORE: A solid three gad-dern dippity derps!
August 30, 2020
It's been 34 years since a Carnival last came to town. Nobody wants to talk about the horror of it all. The fire, the rape, the beaten bodies and tortured animals. Some don't remember what happened that final night, some choose not to remember what they did to those carnies in the name of vengeance for a crime they never committed.
Now all these years later the carnival is back. Some of the townspeople know there's something wrong with it. Others feel compelled to go to the fairgrounds even though they don't know why.
This book was first published back in the 80s and I believe I read it then. My mother was a huge fan and had all of Johnstone's books up until he switched to writing westerns. The funny thing is that once he switched my father became a fan. I've been on a mission to collect as many of these oldies as I can and am attempting to reread them all. This one does feel a bit dated but as someone who loved the schlock of 80s horror I am still a fan. This is one of those classic good against evil stories, with those who may find redemption and those who are beyond hope of redemption all thrown into the mix with sex and gore and demons.
Now all these years later the carnival is back. Some of the townspeople know there's something wrong with it. Others feel compelled to go to the fairgrounds even though they don't know why.
This book was first published back in the 80s and I believe I read it then. My mother was a huge fan and had all of Johnstone's books up until he switched to writing westerns. The funny thing is that once he switched my father became a fan. I've been on a mission to collect as many of these oldies as I can and am attempting to reread them all. This one does feel a bit dated but as someone who loved the schlock of 80s horror I am still a fan. This is one of those classic good against evil stories, with those who may find redemption and those who are beyond hope of redemption all thrown into the mix with sex and gore and demons.
September 15, 2013
William W. Johnstone to this day remains a woefully under-appreciated American author. The sheer volume of his works and popularity of his Westerns is one thing, but people have mostly forgotten he wrote quite a few horror novels as well. I can still remember the moment I read my first Johnstone horror novel. I was immediately a fan and still am.
Johnstone's horror writings are very pulpy which is a good thing. Anyone can write high art horror but there is nothing wrong with a good pulp novel. Carnival is no exception to this rule. The story of a traveling carnival which comes to Holland Nebraska a town who had long since banned carnivals when the last one came to town ended up badly. See the citizens of Holland accused the carnies of raping two women and when the situation escalated they burnt the carnival to the ground killing all the members of the troupe more than 30 years ago. Now the new carnival has arrived and there is something strangely familiar about it.
It's a great premise and could easily make a terrifying horror film. Readers familiar with Johnstone's work will immediately recognize his predilection for a setting up a band of rag tag citizens fighting against a great evil (usually Satan) and this novel is no different. There's a variety of towns folk who are introduced and set up nicely and while some seem to disappear suddenly Johnstone does not forget to wrap up their story lines by the end of the novel. It's a lightning fast read and extremely gory so it may be difficult to translate to film but all in all its a solid scary story. I recommend it to fans of 80s horror and of course anyone looking a good solid horror novel. Someday Johnstone's horror work will get the recognition it deserves and may get reprinted (they are extremely rare and expensive to find a decent copy), in the meantime it is worth hunting down a copy.
Johnstone's horror writings are very pulpy which is a good thing. Anyone can write high art horror but there is nothing wrong with a good pulp novel. Carnival is no exception to this rule. The story of a traveling carnival which comes to Holland Nebraska a town who had long since banned carnivals when the last one came to town ended up badly. See the citizens of Holland accused the carnies of raping two women and when the situation escalated they burnt the carnival to the ground killing all the members of the troupe more than 30 years ago. Now the new carnival has arrived and there is something strangely familiar about it.
It's a great premise and could easily make a terrifying horror film. Readers familiar with Johnstone's work will immediately recognize his predilection for a setting up a band of rag tag citizens fighting against a great evil (usually Satan) and this novel is no different. There's a variety of towns folk who are introduced and set up nicely and while some seem to disappear suddenly Johnstone does not forget to wrap up their story lines by the end of the novel. It's a lightning fast read and extremely gory so it may be difficult to translate to film but all in all its a solid scary story. I recommend it to fans of 80s horror and of course anyone looking a good solid horror novel. Someday Johnstone's horror work will get the recognition it deserves and may get reprinted (they are extremely rare and expensive to find a decent copy), in the meantime it is worth hunting down a copy.
September 12, 2016
The book is listed under horror, but it would be better filed under 'far right thumpin' deplorable readin''.
I look forward to reading anything that speaks of horror and carnivals, fairs, etc. You might get the impression that this would be a great read. Up to this book I loved all of Johnstone's horror books now being re-released. Let me tell you why I thought this one sucked.
The first couple of chapters set the stage for the story, the very long story. The much too long story. It appeared to me that the author really wanted to write a western. Whenever he didn't know where to go with the horror novel, he just kept writing...a western. I skimmed a full 10% at one point before he got back on track.
He kept repeating himself until I asked myself why I was still reading. Answer: I paid for this POS. Other things that made me scream: a description of a bumper sticker on a pickup truck: Nuke their ass and take the gas. upset at a 6 time child molester finally getting payback.
So, I finally reach 'Book 2' and 57% where a bible collection has begun and I decide that there are better books and my time would be better spent reading them. Originally I was going to be generous and go with two or three stars for the fun the horror portion of the book gave me. But lack of editng and all around idiocy and the light of day reminds me that that everyone pens a loser. So, 1 star. Sorry.
I look forward to reading anything that speaks of horror and carnivals, fairs, etc. You might get the impression that this would be a great read. Up to this book I loved all of Johnstone's horror books now being re-released. Let me tell you why I thought this one sucked.
The first couple of chapters set the stage for the story, the very long story. The much too long story. It appeared to me that the author really wanted to write a western. Whenever he didn't know where to go with the horror novel, he just kept writing...a western. I skimmed a full 10% at one point before he got back on track.
He kept repeating himself until I asked myself why I was still reading. Answer: I paid for this POS. Other things that made me scream: a description of a bumper sticker on a pickup truck: Nuke their ass and take the gas. upset at a 6 time child molester finally getting payback.
So, I finally reach 'Book 2' and 57% where a bible collection has begun and I decide that there are better books and my time would be better spent reading them. Originally I was going to be generous and go with two or three stars for the fun the horror portion of the book gave me. But lack of editng and all around idiocy and the light of day reminds me that that everyone pens a loser. So, 1 star. Sorry.
January 16, 2018
Great premise, but really boring book. The first half of this book, BOOK 1, is a decent read, though a bit plodding, it was good enough to get me to the second half, BOOK 2. There I was treated to reiterations and more subplots of characters that did not really make up the genesis of the story at that point. It was a chore to finish this book. I have heard great things about the author though I did not see any of that here in Carnival. Skip it.
March 22, 2023
Wow! Where do I start? This is a toughy because I really enjoy William Johnstone's westerns. This was my first dabble into his horror, and....oh the horror !(not in a good way either) This was a trainwreck that ran into a dumpster fire. Yep, that bad.
The book is written in two parts: Book one and Book two. It started out well, really setting an eerie tone: the ol' creepy carnival is in town and weird things are starting to happen. Book one kicked things off and kept me turning the pages. I won't go into a lengthy summary. You can get that from the book jacket or other reviews, but in a nutshell, the carnival is in town, there is a revenge element, and you just know folks are going to die. I was ready for it, crazy side-show folks and all. The cast of characters were pretty generic, but still intriguing. The story was creepy, yet plausible. I finished Book one ready for some crazy carnival mayhem.
And then came Book two...and wheels started to come off the train. The motives of the characters were all over the map. I couldn't keep track of who was doing what and why. The story itself didn't know what direction it wanted to go. It started as a 'Revenge of the Carny-folk" that turned into some bizarre "Attack of the Demons" and ended with some horribly written "God vs. Satan" mess. The story crashed and burned so quickly, I couldn't read fast enough to get it over. Again, Yep, that bad.
The dialogue was written at a 4th grade level. The "Bad guys" went from being creepy and mysterious to downright STUPID! Then top it all off with some inexcusably terrible editing. Seriously, the amount of misspelled words and choppy sentence structure made it that much more of a chore to finish. I'm having a difficult time reviewing this, because it was so bad. Ay' Carambe!
I gave "Carnival" 1.5 stars because the first half of the story was pretty decent and rounded it up to 2 stars because I like William Johnstone. But this is a definite NO from me. Not recommended. Just my 2 cents!
The book is written in two parts: Book one and Book two. It started out well, really setting an eerie tone: the ol' creepy carnival is in town and weird things are starting to happen. Book one kicked things off and kept me turning the pages. I won't go into a lengthy summary. You can get that from the book jacket or other reviews, but in a nutshell, the carnival is in town, there is a revenge element, and you just know folks are going to die. I was ready for it, crazy side-show folks and all. The cast of characters were pretty generic, but still intriguing. The story was creepy, yet plausible. I finished Book one ready for some crazy carnival mayhem.
And then came Book two...and wheels started to come off the train. The motives of the characters were all over the map. I couldn't keep track of who was doing what and why. The story itself didn't know what direction it wanted to go. It started as a 'Revenge of the Carny-folk" that turned into some bizarre "Attack of the Demons" and ended with some horribly written "God vs. Satan" mess. The story crashed and burned so quickly, I couldn't read fast enough to get it over. Again, Yep, that bad.
The dialogue was written at a 4th grade level. The "Bad guys" went from being creepy and mysterious to downright STUPID! Then top it all off with some inexcusably terrible editing. Seriously, the amount of misspelled words and choppy sentence structure made it that much more of a chore to finish. I'm having a difficult time reviewing this, because it was so bad. Ay' Carambe!
I gave "Carnival" 1.5 stars because the first half of the story was pretty decent and rounded it up to 2 stars because I like William Johnstone. But this is a definite NO from me. Not recommended. Just my 2 cents!
February 19, 2022
Yet another absolutely insane blast of 1980s paperback pulp horror from William W. Johnstone. Yet again, he kicks you in the face repeatedly for 350 pages, leaving you bloody, bruised and exasperated. Where does one begin? There is so much insanity crammed into this book, it is really hard to write any sort of logical, measured review. It is not for everyone, but if you have read any of Johnstone's other horror potboilers, you know what to expect. If you like his particular brand of lunacy, you will enjoy it. If you don't, you won't. Normally I would rate a book like this one 4 stars, not for being "good" per se but just for the sheer entertainment value. This one gets a 3 star rating, as there are a few laggy portions of the book, which is unusual for Johnstone. The final 50 or so pages are a sustained frenzy of violence and insanity that is cranked up to 11 and then some. Highly recommended to Johnstone fans, or any fans of pulp horror that is heavy on the cheese and ludicrously delivered. Pure insanity.
Read
December 11, 2025Hard to rate this book.
A carnival appears in a small Nebraska town. It's the first time a carnival has appeared in Holland after, thirty years ago, two girls were supposedly raped by carnies, and the town sought frontier justice. It's now up to the mayor and a band of about twenty-to thirty "good" citizens to send this new carnival back where it came from. Does that plot sound a bit confused and convoluted? YOU BET! This is William W. Johnstone at his zaniest!
I'm endlessly fascinated by William W. Johnstone but I kind of think he's the Tommy Wiseau of fiction. It isn't that he was merely a staunch right winger with a fundamentalist Christian outlook. I really don't mind reading authors I disagree with (I adore the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and Ayn Rand, for instance, and find it really reductive and ignorant to not engage--and, yes, openly disagree--with them. You can't form an argument against something you don't understand, folks). But I'm not reading Johnstone's books ironically just because he saw the world differently than I did. It's the WAY he conveys those beliefs that makes his beliefs funny to read. His writing is so snarky and aggressive, like he's turning his nose at the reader unless their turning their nose up with him. If you're a liberal, a woman, believe in Big Government, don't carry a gun, or are a vegan, chances are ... William hated you. And you'll somehow end up a villain with confused motives in one of his books.
His heroes are always jacked macho men who go to church every Sunday, put a BEATDOWN on anyone who deserves it, never face any challenges and can never do anything wrong. They're also SUPER violent, but in a way that makes it seem violence is the only logical action they can take. Such as the main character in this book, who is a veteran, but you wouldn't know it because he doesn't seem bothered by ANYTHING that happened to him in Vietnam. It doesn't make him seem as masculine as Johnstone wants us to see him. It makes him robotic. It makes him inhuman. And following an inhuman, unchallenged lead (who's not bothered when his wife suddenly divorces him or bothered by the fact that he may have to kill his daughter, who suddenly becomes a demon with no real build up at all, a daughter he previously killed for when two random people attempted to rape her) is an odd experience, as a reader. Also, for some reason, the he-man macho character wasn't overpowered enough for Johnstone, so late in the game he gives him pyrokinesis. I dunno, man. He can light shit on fire all of a sudden.
Also interesting to note, William W. Johnstone rarely uses foul language in his books. He'll just say, "The demon let loose with profanity!" or something like that. "Filth poured from her mouth" kind of stuff. He gets around it. Profanity and dirty language are a NO GO. That said, this book is FILLED with gruesome (if clunky) violence and disturbing rape scenes.
The violence is always weird. It's gory and brutal, sure, but it's kind of . . . like . . . hard to picture? It happens fast and illogically. Like a character getting hit in the eye and the temple with thrown darts simultaneously. Or a guy getting sucked into a mirror and having his flesh melted, but when he's found he's described as having all his bones broken, like he was dropped form a great height. The effect if more trippy than repulsive. Like, when a character dies, you kind of have to sit down and think about it for a moment to understand what actually happened to them. Also, that mirror character is a child molester and all the characters seem okay that the carnival killed him, but then they immediately jump into action trying to get the carnival out of town for having killed him. Like, okay.
There are a MILLION characters in this book. The bad ones all sort of morph into a mob of characters who all have the exact same traits. They're all evil, they were mean to animals (this vague detail is used just to make someone bad when Johnstone doesn't want to go through the trouble of actually describing their character. This is Alma Sessions. She's a bad egg. She's been cruel to animals. Somehow everyone knows this about her), sometimes they're liberals or weak mean or women who enjoy sex. The heroes are hard to tell apart to. There's just so many of them, traveling together in a clump through the carnival's hellscape. And they amass more heroes and good guys as they go. Johnstone rarely, if ever, decides to describe what any of these people look like (or even how old they are), so the first idea in your head of what "Eddie" or "Linda" or "Alicia" looks like is what "Eddie" or "Linda" of "Alicia" is always going to look like for you, even when small details later on contradict that image. Also, Johnstone just decides a certain number of characters who were good all along where actually bad and they were bad the whole time they were just good at hiding it so they're demons now deal with it and FUCK YOU.
Do I like this book?
Yes.
Absolutely.
This is the most fun I've had reading in a moment.
But I'm not going to pretend I like this book because it's GOOD. It isn't. The things that are WRONG with it are what make it entertaining. It's like watching a really weird B-movie. A vanity project, actually. I like reading weird books. I like reading books that baffle me and make me scratch my head. I like books that no one other than the person who wrote them could have written.
So yeah ... I LIKE this book. It made me laugh the way films like Troll 2 or The Room.
Reading a Johnstone book is always just like having an increasingly heated conversation with him, reading his books. You'll hear his opinions blatantly, whether you want 'em or not, and when you get stoned in the garage with your cousin, you're going to want to talk about the crazy shit Uncle Johnstone told you.
If you want an ironic laugh, then I recommend Carnival. As writers and readers, I think it's important to read the bad stuff as well as the good, and to find enjoyment in it.
A carnival appears in a small Nebraska town. It's the first time a carnival has appeared in Holland after, thirty years ago, two girls were supposedly raped by carnies, and the town sought frontier justice. It's now up to the mayor and a band of about twenty-to thirty "good" citizens to send this new carnival back where it came from. Does that plot sound a bit confused and convoluted? YOU BET! This is William W. Johnstone at his zaniest!
I'm endlessly fascinated by William W. Johnstone but I kind of think he's the Tommy Wiseau of fiction. It isn't that he was merely a staunch right winger with a fundamentalist Christian outlook. I really don't mind reading authors I disagree with (I adore the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and Ayn Rand, for instance, and find it really reductive and ignorant to not engage--and, yes, openly disagree--with them. You can't form an argument against something you don't understand, folks). But I'm not reading Johnstone's books ironically just because he saw the world differently than I did. It's the WAY he conveys those beliefs that makes his beliefs funny to read. His writing is so snarky and aggressive, like he's turning his nose at the reader unless their turning their nose up with him. If you're a liberal, a woman, believe in Big Government, don't carry a gun, or are a vegan, chances are ... William hated you. And you'll somehow end up a villain with confused motives in one of his books.
His heroes are always jacked macho men who go to church every Sunday, put a BEATDOWN on anyone who deserves it, never face any challenges and can never do anything wrong. They're also SUPER violent, but in a way that makes it seem violence is the only logical action they can take. Such as the main character in this book, who is a veteran, but you wouldn't know it because he doesn't seem bothered by ANYTHING that happened to him in Vietnam. It doesn't make him seem as masculine as Johnstone wants us to see him. It makes him robotic. It makes him inhuman. And following an inhuman, unchallenged lead (who's not bothered when his wife suddenly divorces him or bothered by the fact that he may have to kill his daughter, who suddenly becomes a demon with no real build up at all, a daughter he previously killed for when two random people attempted to rape her) is an odd experience, as a reader. Also, for some reason, the he-man macho character wasn't overpowered enough for Johnstone, so late in the game he gives him pyrokinesis. I dunno, man. He can light shit on fire all of a sudden.
Also interesting to note, William W. Johnstone rarely uses foul language in his books. He'll just say, "The demon let loose with profanity!" or something like that. "Filth poured from her mouth" kind of stuff. He gets around it. Profanity and dirty language are a NO GO. That said, this book is FILLED with gruesome (if clunky) violence and disturbing rape scenes.
The violence is always weird. It's gory and brutal, sure, but it's kind of . . . like . . . hard to picture? It happens fast and illogically. Like a character getting hit in the eye and the temple with thrown darts simultaneously. Or a guy getting sucked into a mirror and having his flesh melted, but when he's found he's described as having all his bones broken, like he was dropped form a great height. The effect if more trippy than repulsive. Like, when a character dies, you kind of have to sit down and think about it for a moment to understand what actually happened to them. Also, that mirror character is a child molester and all the characters seem okay that the carnival killed him, but then they immediately jump into action trying to get the carnival out of town for having killed him. Like, okay.
There are a MILLION characters in this book. The bad ones all sort of morph into a mob of characters who all have the exact same traits. They're all evil, they were mean to animals (this vague detail is used just to make someone bad when Johnstone doesn't want to go through the trouble of actually describing their character. This is Alma Sessions. She's a bad egg. She's been cruel to animals. Somehow everyone knows this about her), sometimes they're liberals or weak mean or women who enjoy sex. The heroes are hard to tell apart to. There's just so many of them, traveling together in a clump through the carnival's hellscape. And they amass more heroes and good guys as they go. Johnstone rarely, if ever, decides to describe what any of these people look like (or even how old they are), so the first idea in your head of what "Eddie" or "Linda" or "Alicia" looks like is what "Eddie" or "Linda" of "Alicia" is always going to look like for you, even when small details later on contradict that image. Also, Johnstone just decides a certain number of characters who were good all along where actually bad and they were bad the whole time they were just good at hiding it so they're demons now deal with it and FUCK YOU.
Do I like this book?
Yes.
Absolutely.
This is the most fun I've had reading in a moment.
But I'm not going to pretend I like this book because it's GOOD. It isn't. The things that are WRONG with it are what make it entertaining. It's like watching a really weird B-movie. A vanity project, actually. I like reading weird books. I like reading books that baffle me and make me scratch my head. I like books that no one other than the person who wrote them could have written.
So yeah ... I LIKE this book. It made me laugh the way films like Troll 2 or The Room.
Reading a Johnstone book is always just like having an increasingly heated conversation with him, reading his books. You'll hear his opinions blatantly, whether you want 'em or not, and when you get stoned in the garage with your cousin, you're going to want to talk about the crazy shit Uncle Johnstone told you.
If you want an ironic laugh, then I recommend Carnival. As writers and readers, I think it's important to read the bad stuff as well as the good, and to find enjoyment in it.
October 17, 2020
Holland, NE is a small town in the middle of nowhere that harbors a dark secret, one which has been buried for years. Now with the arrival of a strange carnival that secret will be unearthed as an ancient evil brings a fight between good and evil to the residents of Holland - a fight that will play out in the Midway of the Carnival.
January 7, 2025
There's a very particular, very specific itch that gets scratched by a William W. Johnstone horror novel. If you aren't in the mood for it, Johnstone's going to either exhaust you with his barely hack-grade prose, or bore you with all the time his characters spend trying to come up with answers to mysteries the reader figured out four chapters ago. He's not going to scare you either, because Johnstone never shows when telling would do, and his novels always serve up so many secondary and tertiary people for the meat grinder that you never get to know anybody, even the protagonists, all that well. However, if the itch you are looking to scratch is 'redneck batshit lunacy', then boy howdy, is Johnstone your guy.
Carnival, published in 1989 by home-of-last-resort grist mill Zebra, does nothing to propel Johnstone to a higher tier of quality. The best thing about it, as with most of Zebra's output, is the cover artwork: these guys would stick a skeleton in just about any sort of attire, and a skeletal carnival barker with a bleeding heart-shaped hole in his ribcage is absolutely on-brand.
So here's the deal: in the mid-50's, the carnival came to Holland, Nebraska. Just as you'd expect, they brought along all the acts: the dog-faced boy, the fat lady, the pinhead, the strongman, the geek, the exotic snake dancer, even Jojo the ape man. Just as you would not expect, however, the night the carnival opened, two local sons of wealthy ranchers cornered two young women in the livestock pens, and did what assholes who corner young women in livestock pens traditionally do.
To cover up the truth, the two wealthy ranchers whipped up a story about how the two women had been assaulted by members of the carnival troupe. Nearly every man, woman, and child in Holland descended upon the hapless carnie folk with literal pitchforks and torches, and when all was said and done, the tents were torn down, the buildings burnt to ashes, and not even a roustabout was left alive.
Thirty years later, most of the town has forgotten what happened the last time a carnival showed up. Which is convenient, because there's one rolling into the fairgrounds now. The ferris wheel is going up. The Hall of Mirrors has been erected. The Funhouse is being assembled. The Ten in One freakshow has arrived. And they're all being watched over by a man sharing the same name as the owner of that original carnival back from the 50's: Nabo.
The residents of Holland might have put what happened three decades ago behind them. But the carnival has never forgotten. They've been waiting patiently, and tonight, they will have their revenge.
* * * * *
That description probably makes this book sound way more exciting than it is. What's interesting about this one is that while it shares an awful lot of the same tropes as other Johnstone horror novels (including a protagonist who is a veteran, and an antagonist who is allied closely with the Devil), it entirely avoids Johnstone's common character-mouthpiece screeds against libruls, atheists, journalists, and other folks whom Johnstone never cared for while also eschewing the gun-humping nutbaggery so frequently seen in his other novels.
As I mentioned, this came out in 1989, so it's not like Johnstone had turned over a new leaf or grown out of that phase of his writing. Best I can guess is either a line editor from Zebra's stable excised the bulk of this stuff from the manuscript without Johnstone's input, or Johnstone's own editor told him to knock it off if he wanted to get paid for this one, sent the manuscript back covered in red pen, and Johnstone capitulated. My instincts have me suspecting the former, because the whole book reads like a hastily-thrown-together first draft, with plenty of spelling mistakes and misused words that any second draft attempt should have caught. I suppose we'll never know. And honestly, I'm not sure if this made me enjoy the book more or less. Part of the fun of reading Johnstone is counting up the number of times he waves his 'Ask Me About My Big Republican Jesus Dick' flag in the reader's face, and in Carnival, it never comes unfurled.
There's plenty of other Johnstone tropes to go around though: over-the-top violence, underage sex and nudity, Manly Men Doing Manly Men Things(tm), a Hispanic woman named 'Frenchy', and an ending that could be required reading for anyone wondering how much insanity should allowed in the climax of your story. I'm sorry, I know this is spoiler-y, but the final chapters involve
This man's birthstone was a gawddamn crack rock, and you cannot convince me otherwise.
Johnstone was fifty years old when this came out, but it's written with all the adolescent glee of a high schooler in a creative writing class where the teacher has told the students they have no limits, and the student misunderstood that to mean 'go apeshit'. He's clearly making it up as he goes along, characters randomly betray the good guys because Johnstone introduced them and now he needs something to do with them, and despite several references to "the rules" from Nabo and other characters, Johnstone never reveals what, exactly, these rules are supposed to entail.
According to his bio, Johnstone left home at age fifteen to work with a carnival. Forty-five years later, he wrote this book as what I have to assume was a sort of tribute/remembrance to that life experience. Hopefully that experience involved far fewer people getting impaled on spikes and dying in fires, but it's Johnstone so who could say?
Three entertaining-for-all-the-wrong-reasons stars out of five.
Carnival, published in 1989 by home-of-last-resort grist mill Zebra, does nothing to propel Johnstone to a higher tier of quality. The best thing about it, as with most of Zebra's output, is the cover artwork: these guys would stick a skeleton in just about any sort of attire, and a skeletal carnival barker with a bleeding heart-shaped hole in his ribcage is absolutely on-brand.
So here's the deal: in the mid-50's, the carnival came to Holland, Nebraska. Just as you'd expect, they brought along all the acts: the dog-faced boy, the fat lady, the pinhead, the strongman, the geek, the exotic snake dancer, even Jojo the ape man. Just as you would not expect, however, the night the carnival opened, two local sons of wealthy ranchers cornered two young women in the livestock pens, and did what assholes who corner young women in livestock pens traditionally do.
To cover up the truth, the two wealthy ranchers whipped up a story about how the two women had been assaulted by members of the carnival troupe. Nearly every man, woman, and child in Holland descended upon the hapless carnie folk with literal pitchforks and torches, and when all was said and done, the tents were torn down, the buildings burnt to ashes, and not even a roustabout was left alive.
Thirty years later, most of the town has forgotten what happened the last time a carnival showed up. Which is convenient, because there's one rolling into the fairgrounds now. The ferris wheel is going up. The Hall of Mirrors has been erected. The Funhouse is being assembled. The Ten in One freakshow has arrived. And they're all being watched over by a man sharing the same name as the owner of that original carnival back from the 50's: Nabo.
The residents of Holland might have put what happened three decades ago behind them. But the carnival has never forgotten. They've been waiting patiently, and tonight, they will have their revenge.
* * * * *
That description probably makes this book sound way more exciting than it is. What's interesting about this one is that while it shares an awful lot of the same tropes as other Johnstone horror novels (including a protagonist who is a veteran, and an antagonist who is allied closely with the Devil), it entirely avoids Johnstone's common character-mouthpiece screeds against libruls, atheists, journalists, and other folks whom Johnstone never cared for while also eschewing the gun-humping nutbaggery so frequently seen in his other novels.
As I mentioned, this came out in 1989, so it's not like Johnstone had turned over a new leaf or grown out of that phase of his writing. Best I can guess is either a line editor from Zebra's stable excised the bulk of this stuff from the manuscript without Johnstone's input, or Johnstone's own editor told him to knock it off if he wanted to get paid for this one, sent the manuscript back covered in red pen, and Johnstone capitulated. My instincts have me suspecting the former, because the whole book reads like a hastily-thrown-together first draft, with plenty of spelling mistakes and misused words that any second draft attempt should have caught. I suppose we'll never know. And honestly, I'm not sure if this made me enjoy the book more or less. Part of the fun of reading Johnstone is counting up the number of times he waves his 'Ask Me About My Big Republican Jesus Dick' flag in the reader's face, and in Carnival, it never comes unfurled.
There's plenty of other Johnstone tropes to go around though: over-the-top violence, underage sex and nudity, Manly Men Doing Manly Men Things(tm), a Hispanic woman named 'Frenchy', and an ending that could be required reading for anyone wondering how much insanity should allowed in the climax of your story. I'm sorry, I know this is spoiler-y, but the final chapters involve
This man's birthstone was a gawddamn crack rock, and you cannot convince me otherwise.
Johnstone was fifty years old when this came out, but it's written with all the adolescent glee of a high schooler in a creative writing class where the teacher has told the students they have no limits, and the student misunderstood that to mean 'go apeshit'. He's clearly making it up as he goes along, characters randomly betray the good guys because Johnstone introduced them and now he needs something to do with them, and despite several references to "the rules" from Nabo and other characters, Johnstone never reveals what, exactly, these rules are supposed to entail.
According to his bio, Johnstone left home at age fifteen to work with a carnival. Forty-five years later, he wrote this book as what I have to assume was a sort of tribute/remembrance to that life experience. Hopefully that experience involved far fewer people getting impaled on spikes and dying in fires, but it's Johnstone so who could say?
Three entertaining-for-all-the-wrong-reasons stars out of five.
December 9, 2021
At first glance I thought this book was about a haunted carnival, and I was sold. Turns out I was wrong. Then I thought this book was about ghosts from a doomed carnival returning to a town for revenge, and I was excited. But again, I was wrong. Turns out this book is just another tale of good vs. evil, fighting it out for a town's very soul. Does that make it bad? NO. But what I didnt like was the extremely wooden characters this book is rife with
July 19, 2020
Evil carnival comes to small town Nebraska, for revenge. It seems that in 1954 when the carnival first came through, a couple spoiled, no-good kids raped a couple local girls and blamed the carnies. The town goes into an uproar and kills, burns and maims human and animals alike. Flash forward to the present day. ( That being the 1980's ) and the same carnival pulls into town with the same people. Same acts. New purpose. To destroy the town.
This had a lot of good things going for it. It also had a lot of drawbacks. The pacing is well done. This builds nicely. A moderate splash of gore. Some of the problems are too many characters. You have brothers and sisters with mothers and fathers and friend and police and town folks and....you get the point. It's hard to keep them straight. Also there are some really silly touches to the good vs. evil battle at the end that I don't want to give away. They just didn't sit well with me. Still, not bad.
This had a lot of good things going for it. It also had a lot of drawbacks. The pacing is well done. This builds nicely. A moderate splash of gore. Some of the problems are too many characters. You have brothers and sisters with mothers and fathers and friend and police and town folks and....you get the point. It's hard to keep them straight. Also there are some really silly touches to the good vs. evil battle at the end that I don't want to give away. They just didn't sit well with me. Still, not bad.
September 7, 2016
This book is split into two parts (called "books"). Book One sets up the story and is fantastic. It's a real Twilight Zone feel. Book Two contains the action and is a major nosedive for the book as it devolves into full on fantasy action.
September 20, 2016
I admit it; I bought this book because I was jonesing for American Horror Story and Twisty the Clown. I saw the cover and jumped at it. I did not realize that I had previously read a western by the same author. It is the genre that he is most well-known for and I loved the book and gave it a high rating.
I see Carnival for exactly what it is and I love it for what it is: pulp fiction and strictly entertaining. This is not a masterfully well written piece of literature with a strong thematic underpinning. Those features do belong to his western’s. No, this is strictly fun. A good creepy novel set in a travelling carnival.
The carnival comes to Holland, Nebraska after a forty year absence. But this is not just any carnival. This carnival is run by Nabo, a servant of Satan and the dark underworld. The carnival has returned to Holland to exact revenge for an injustice done to it in 1959.
The town is divided. There are those that have insight, can read minds and are believers in a higher good and those who are demons in disguise. Their true faces only come to light because the carnival is in town and the dark forces require all the help they can get in order to destroy the town.
The carnival is super creepy. People are drawn to hang around it before it even opens and a whole bunch of degraqding things begin to occur around the town in darkness’s quest to corrupt. Some people, recognizing on a subconscious level what is happening, choose to get their families out of town. Others begin to lose their facades and succumb to their dark natures.
In a classic good vs. evil story, the good are a small band of disparate town characters. There are also a handful of good people with insight who are part of the “freak show” which satisfied my American Horror Story craving for some of the great so called freaks. The good band together against the evil and get an assist from some good folks who also happen to be dead and a police force that can hardly believe what their eyes are seeing.
The good also get an assist from animals who were killed due to cruelty and who come back to revisit their pain on their tormentors and killers. It was a little hard to read that part of the story but it gave me no small pleasure to read about their revenge. They would then be able to join St. Francis of Assisi and live out their eternity in wonderful loving splendor.
Don’t get this book looking for the great American novel. Also, there is some repetition in certain phrases. All of the characters are always described as “cutting their eyes” at each other. It’s annoying to read over and over and Martin Holland IV, the main character is a bit sanctimonious but as I said, read this for the sheer fun of pulp fiction – nothing more or less.
I can also recommend Johnstone’s western novels. More depth and truly the genre he appears to have enjoyed writing in the most. He has a wonderfully large catalogue of work to choose from and he is definitely underrated and underrepresented in the book world. Enjoy your time at the creepiest carnival since Elsa Mars and Twisty came to town.
I see Carnival for exactly what it is and I love it for what it is: pulp fiction and strictly entertaining. This is not a masterfully well written piece of literature with a strong thematic underpinning. Those features do belong to his western’s. No, this is strictly fun. A good creepy novel set in a travelling carnival.
The carnival comes to Holland, Nebraska after a forty year absence. But this is not just any carnival. This carnival is run by Nabo, a servant of Satan and the dark underworld. The carnival has returned to Holland to exact revenge for an injustice done to it in 1959.
The town is divided. There are those that have insight, can read minds and are believers in a higher good and those who are demons in disguise. Their true faces only come to light because the carnival is in town and the dark forces require all the help they can get in order to destroy the town.
The carnival is super creepy. People are drawn to hang around it before it even opens and a whole bunch of degraqding things begin to occur around the town in darkness’s quest to corrupt. Some people, recognizing on a subconscious level what is happening, choose to get their families out of town. Others begin to lose their facades and succumb to their dark natures.
In a classic good vs. evil story, the good are a small band of disparate town characters. There are also a handful of good people with insight who are part of the “freak show” which satisfied my American Horror Story craving for some of the great so called freaks. The good band together against the evil and get an assist from some good folks who also happen to be dead and a police force that can hardly believe what their eyes are seeing.
The good also get an assist from animals who were killed due to cruelty and who come back to revisit their pain on their tormentors and killers. It was a little hard to read that part of the story but it gave me no small pleasure to read about their revenge. They would then be able to join St. Francis of Assisi and live out their eternity in wonderful loving splendor.
Don’t get this book looking for the great American novel. Also, there is some repetition in certain phrases. All of the characters are always described as “cutting their eyes” at each other. It’s annoying to read over and over and Martin Holland IV, the main character is a bit sanctimonious but as I said, read this for the sheer fun of pulp fiction – nothing more or less.
I can also recommend Johnstone’s western novels. More depth and truly the genre he appears to have enjoyed writing in the most. He has a wonderfully large catalogue of work to choose from and he is definitely underrated and underrepresented in the book world. Enjoy your time at the creepiest carnival since Elsa Mars and Twisty came to town.
November 12, 2016
I love reading books about circuses and carnivals. Decided to give this one a shot. The first part was very good and set up all the mystery of why the carnival had come back to town, 34 years after something tragic had happened. The townspeople start acting weirdly and there are hallucinations. There is a small group of people who are not affected and are trying to get to the bottom of what's going on.
The second half of the book got a little carried away for me. There was a lot of sex, gore and grossness. The author tried to insert inspiration into the mix but it just didn't work for me.
The second half of the book got a little carried away for me. There was a lot of sex, gore and grossness. The author tried to insert inspiration into the mix but it just didn't work for me.
September 20, 2017
I usually like creepy Carnie stories.
But... This was not what I had in mind.
The thing with William Johnstone characters is that they are not developed. So you don't care too much what happens to them.
There is also no build up. Just usually some rapey mind control and religious elements.
The characters were turning in the book from he first few pages.
The revenge aspect is something that could have been great. The premise was.
2.5 stars
But... This was not what I had in mind.
The thing with William Johnstone characters is that they are not developed. So you don't care too much what happens to them.
There is also no build up. Just usually some rapey mind control and religious elements.
The characters were turning in the book from he first few pages.
The revenge aspect is something that could have been great. The premise was.
2.5 stars
September 20, 2016
A great old fashioned horror story
If you love horror stories this one is for you. Monsters, zombies, creatures from the night. You know what is going to happen almost from the first page. That's ok, you wills till enjoy it. It is probably meant for young adults. That's OK too, I'm 60 and had fun reading every page.
If you love horror stories this one is for you. Monsters, zombies, creatures from the night. You know what is going to happen almost from the first page. That's ok, you wills till enjoy it. It is probably meant for young adults. That's OK too, I'm 60 and had fun reading every page.
September 10, 2016
AWESOME READ!!!!
I truly enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down. The characters are very well written, and it is easy to connect with them. The story line is that very taut with action in this good vs. evil story.
I truly enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down. The characters are very well written, and it is easy to connect with them. The story line is that very taut with action in this good vs. evil story.
September 15, 2016
I have never read this author before, but will now. This is a complete surprise. I expected something like Stephen King's "IT" but it wasn't. This is one of those, "wow, how did that happen" I absolutely LOVED it.
October 28, 2018
Fun fun for everyone
What happens when the carnival comes to town only they are back for one reason revenge. This book was amazing and very fast paced. There isn’t a dull part in the book. I loved the ending. Just good fun horror highly recommend
What happens when the carnival comes to town only they are back for one reason revenge. This book was amazing and very fast paced. There isn’t a dull part in the book. I loved the ending. Just good fun horror highly recommend
May 23, 2019
Fantastic Read!!
Fantastic storyline and characters! Great attention to detail! Had enough horror & gruesomeness to keep my attention. Will be reading more of your books in the future!
Fantastic storyline and characters! Great attention to detail! Had enough horror & gruesomeness to keep my attention. Will be reading more of your books in the future!
September 15, 2016
Decent book
Good characters and plot. Got this book from Ediscovery in exchange for honest review. Would recommend this author and books to others.
Good characters and plot. Got this book from Ediscovery in exchange for honest review. Would recommend this author and books to others.
Read
October 13, 2016This, although very graphic in text, was undoubtedly one of the best horror novels I have ever read!!
November 10, 2016
Super
A really good read. A real page turner. I recommend it to anyone who likes shivers. I'll read this author again.
A really good read. A real page turner. I recommend it to anyone who likes shivers. I'll read this author again.
March 22, 2017
Wow
This is an awesome good versus evil story. I didn't want to put it down. Wow what an ending.
This book reminded me of Stephen King or Dean Koontz stories.
This is an awesome good versus evil story. I didn't want to put it down. Wow what an ending.
This book reminded me of Stephen King or Dean Koontz stories.
November 9, 2017
Oldie but goody
Not his best horror but still a very good one. Set in the eighties (when it was written) is is especially fun for those of us who remember those days.
Not his best horror but still a very good one. Set in the eighties (when it was written) is is especially fun for those of us who remember those days.
November 9, 2019
Scary!!!
June 2, 2021
Holland, Nebraska, burned and killed most of the carnies after two teen town girls get raped. 34 years later another carnival comes into town, that looks similar. Some of the townspeople know there's something wrong with it. Others feel compelled to go to the fairgrounds even though they don't know why. Mayor Margin Holland and a few others start noticing something is wrong. Then the bodies start to drop, all unsavory characters. Is the carnival responsible? will good beat out evil?
I enjoyed this book, went in another whole direction half way through. but was a good read.
I enjoyed this book, went in another whole direction half way through. but was a good read.
May 8, 2024
Reads like a bad movie
There’s not much character development. So many characters out of nowhere, several don’t make sense but are needed for the plot to move along but it still didn’t make much sense.
Typos which aren’t excusable at this level.
An odd level of violence perpetrated by the main character that wasn’t necessary. Also a lot of sexualizing of minors in a way that wasn’t necessary for the plot.
It was poorly thought out, not well written and had a strange love story that was absolutely misplaced.
There’s not much character development. So many characters out of nowhere, several don’t make sense but are needed for the plot to move along but it still didn’t make much sense.
Typos which aren’t excusable at this level.
An odd level of violence perpetrated by the main character that wasn’t necessary. Also a lot of sexualizing of minors in a way that wasn’t necessary for the plot.
It was poorly thought out, not well written and had a strange love story that was absolutely misplaced.
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