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aceinit's review
2.0
This book is such a disappointment on so many levels. Carnivals! The supernatural! A long list of authors that I’ve heard of and wanted to read but never actually read! It’s supposed to be…you know….cool. But after the first two or three stories, the tales bleed into one another and an unavoidable sameness rears its ugly head. Oooh, something is amiss at the funhouse. Ooooh, the carnival is evil and out for your soul. Oooh, scary clowns. Let’s send a badass chick (or, like, this one dude with a sarcastic talking dog) in to deal with these shenanigans, pronto!
With two stories left to read, I can pretty safely say “That’s it. That’s the anthology.”
Sadly, there is so far only one author whose works I want to look up as a result of her entry here. And from the looks of things, those books are less about a traveling band and violin-playing contests against agents of Satan as they are about hot!steamy!paranormal!sex.
Which is one offshoot of urban fantasy I absolutely cannot stand to read, because there’s only so many ways a vampire or werewolf can smolder before it just starts sounding cheesy.
Sadly, nothing else has made me want to look up the authors to see what else they've created, or further explore their works. It is one of the few collections I've read that's had the exact opposite effect: I pulled up my to-read list and deleted an entry here and there.
I was never really blown away by Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, (an inevitable comparison, since it's a recent, best-selling novel set around the idea of a traveling circus), but there was a beautiful, haunting imagery to her work that’s stayed with me since its release, a uniqueness of creation that I found myself missing sorely in this anthology. Her traveling circus was an elegant, visually stunning experience unlike any I had ever read about before, whereas almost everything Carniepunk has to offer is the same old run-down, leering-carny, rides-of-questionable-safety, rigged-game traveling carnival that we’ve already read about before (and will read about again in this anthology...and again...and again...and again).
There are only one or two stories that make themselves the exception to this familiar setting, and about as many that don’t feature the theme of “outsider to the carnival has to investigate some Weird Supernatural Thing and saves the day.” There are so many different ways the carnival setting could have been played with or incorporated. So many different whens. The complete and utter lack of imagination in what is supposed to be the backbone of this anthology was profoundly disappointing.
EDIT: I have finished the novel, and the only truly noteworthy story, and one few entries to veer from the "carnival as seen from a visitor's viewpoint" gimmick was Seanan MacGuire's entry, "Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid..." *This* was the kind of story I dove into Carniepunk hoping to find. Unfortunately, it is the closing story.
With two stories left to read, I can pretty safely say “That’s it. That’s the anthology.”
Sadly, there is so far only one author whose works I want to look up as a result of her entry here. And from the looks of things, those books are less about a traveling band and violin-playing contests against agents of Satan as they are about hot!steamy!paranormal!sex.
Which is one offshoot of urban fantasy I absolutely cannot stand to read, because there’s only so many ways a vampire or werewolf can smolder before it just starts sounding cheesy.
Sadly, nothing else has made me want to look up the authors to see what else they've created, or further explore their works. It is one of the few collections I've read that's had the exact opposite effect: I pulled up my to-read list and deleted an entry here and there.
I was never really blown away by Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, (an inevitable comparison, since it's a recent, best-selling novel set around the idea of a traveling circus), but there was a beautiful, haunting imagery to her work that’s stayed with me since its release, a uniqueness of creation that I found myself missing sorely in this anthology. Her traveling circus was an elegant, visually stunning experience unlike any I had ever read about before, whereas almost everything Carniepunk has to offer is the same old run-down, leering-carny, rides-of-questionable-safety, rigged-game traveling carnival that we’ve already read about before (and will read about again in this anthology...and again...and again...and again).
There are only one or two stories that make themselves the exception to this familiar setting, and about as many that don’t feature the theme of “outsider to the carnival has to investigate some Weird Supernatural Thing and saves the day.” There are so many different ways the carnival setting could have been played with or incorporated. So many different whens. The complete and utter lack of imagination in what is supposed to be the backbone of this anthology was profoundly disappointing.
EDIT: I have finished the novel, and the only truly noteworthy story, and one few entries to veer from the "carnival as seen from a visitor's viewpoint" gimmick was Seanan MacGuire's entry, "Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid..." *This* was the kind of story I dove into Carniepunk hoping to find. Unfortunately, it is the closing story.
kimlynn77's review
4.0
Rating for only the Kevin Hearne and Kelly Meding stories. "Demon Barker of Wheat Street" was a great Iron Druid story. Hearn's description of the "Anchovy Gate" will be forever seared onto my visual and olfactory memory. (I hate the smell of fish). "Freak House" by Meding was cool story featuring supernatural creatures and some of their halfling offspring. I really hope she develops this universe into a complete novel!
fyrekatz's review
3.0
I enjoyed reading Rachel Caine, Rob Thurman, and Kevin Hearne's stoies in this analogy... I think I need to reread this for a proper review but I wanted to make something short here for NG also this I'm way behind and forget to write something for them before it was published! EEKKK!
brokenchell's review
5.0
This is a great lil book of shorts. Loved it. Totally never going to another carnival ever again but loved it lol. I also have a huge list of tbr series now :)
claire_loves_books's review
4.0
I really enjoyed some of the stories in this and I've definitely picked up a few more authors that I want to take a look at, but there were also a few stories that I really didn't enjoy but I guess that's fairly typical for an anthology. Some of them are standalone and others are part of series but I'd say you can read most of them without having read anything else by the author.
I really enjoyed the stories by Rob Thurman, Kevin Hearne, Hillary Jacques and Kelly Meding.
One thing I didn't like about this was that violence against women seemed to feature pretty strongly in quite a few of the stories, it made me really uncomfortable how many stories featured rape/murder/kidnapping.
I really enjoyed the stories by Rob Thurman, Kevin Hearne, Hillary Jacques and Kelly Meding.
One thing I didn't like about this was that violence against women seemed to feature pretty strongly in quite a few of the stories, it made me really uncomfortable how many stories featured rape/murder/kidnapping.
ericbuscemi's review
4.0
This four-star review is only for the short story 'The Demon Barker of Wheat Street,' an Iron Druid Chronicle story that takes place chronologically between the fourth and fifth novels in the series. If you have read up to the fourth book in the series, there is really no reason not to read this short story, you'll definitely like it, along with the other two short stories set in between the fourth and fifth novels -- [b:Two Ravens and One Crow|15728721|Two Ravens and One Crow (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #4.5)|Kevin Hearne|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344336650s/15728721.jpg|21407171] and [b:The Chapel Perilous|20637206|The Chapel Perilous (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #4.6)|Kevin Hearne|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390752305s/20637206.jpg|39926571]. While I am sure any and all of these could be read as stand alone stories, they would reveal spoilers from the preceding novels, so I think they probably work best read in order.
athenaevarinya's review
5.0
I only read it for the Jennifer Estep story. Perhaps I may go back one day if the other authors catch my attention.
awebster92's review
4.0
I recently read Seanan Mcguire's book 'Every Heart a Doorway' and I love it so much I wanted to read everything she has written. I planned on only reading her part of this anthology, but it was so good I am going to give the rest a go too. The stories were hit or miss for me. Some of them hooked me so intensely that I plan on reading more from the authors, but others made me want to avoid them completely. A few where a 3 star read for me, but nothing I would go out of my way to read again. That being said, I loved these fully.
Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea
The Three Lives of Lydia
Recession of the Divine
The Cold Girl
Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea
The Three Lives of Lydia
Recession of the Divine
The Cold Girl