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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
*** SPOILERS ***
The book starts off with a woman taking shots of vodka to get courage. We find out she's trying to get up courage to kill her baby. The baby is deformed and the mom thinks it's evil. When Ellen (the mom_) tries to kill the baby it fights back fiercely, unlike a baby ever should or could be able to do. She kills the baby, and her abusive husband, Conrad comes home to find the baby dead. He hits her but doesn't kill her, makes her move out right that second, and tells her that he is going to wait how ever long it takes and one day find her children she has in the future and kill them.
The next part of the book is many years later. Ellen has had two children, a teenage girl and a 10-year-old son. Ellen is a god-fearing alcoholic that is a very strict mom. Ellen's daughter, Amy, realizes she is pregnant and when she tells her boyfriend at the end of Prom night, he refuses to give her money for an abortion, breaks up with her, and says he will say she slept with someone else.
Amy can't find a way to raise the money to get an abortion so she finally decides she will have to tell her mom, and is genuinely scared that her mom will kill her. She tells her mom and her mom says she has to get an abortion and can't tell anyone about it ever. She mentions that the baby could come out as a monster and deformed. Meanwhile, Ellen gets belligerently drunk most nights and sneaks into her son's room when she thinks he is asleep. He isn't asleep and hears her talking about how she hopes he won't turn into a monster because she wouldn't want to kill him like she had to kill Victor. This really scares him. He decides that when the carnival comes to town he will try to run away to be with the carnies.
Meanwhile, we see that Conrad is a carny and he has been spending years trying to hunt down Ellen to find her new life and kill her children. Any time he sees a child that looks similar or around the age of what he thought Ellen's kids would have been. He makes another carny give free coupons to the psychic so the psychic could get more info about them.
Ellen's son goes to the carnival and while there, Conrad asks him questions and he feels a need to lie about his mom's name and life. Conrad gives him two coupons to come back to the fair anyway. He plans to use one to run away with the carnival on the last night they are open. He decides he will use the other one to go back again another time before the end of the carnival.
Amy gets her abortion and then starts hanging out a lot with her one very promiscuous friend and two boys that they double date a lot. They go to the carnival one night and go into the psychic booth. The psychic looks into the sphere and freaks out and tells the group they need to get out right away and they are in danger if they don't. She admits that she can't actually see the future and she pretends, but for the first time ever she really saw something bad and a lot of blood and danger and they had to leave. The group ignores her.
Conrad goes to talk to the psychic to see if she got any info on the girl. She said she didn't but Conrad said she is lying and kills her before she can try to stop him from taking Ellen's kids. Also, the psychic and Ellen had a child together named Gunther, and he was deformed and beast like. He had been raping, killing, and dismembering people before going to the next stop for the carnival. Conrad wanted to steal Ellen's kid and have Gunther kill them and torture them. Conrad thinks that he was meant to worship the devil and he gave birth to Gunther who is the new devil.
Conrad gives the group a coupon to go into the funhouse where he planned to steal Amy. Ellen's son was also at the carnival and when he was on the Ferris wheel he saw Amy going into the fun house so he went to go wait for her to get off. Conrad saw the boy and convinced him to help him fix the funhouse because he said it was stuck and that's why his sister was taking so long to come out.
Conrad stopped the funhouse and had gunther kill the three friends of Amy's one by one. Amy finally gets to a basement and sees Conrad with her brother. She has a crappy knife that she found in the darkness when trying to get out the funhouse. She leans down to give her brother a hug when she found him and when Conrad wasn't expecting it she sliced his throat and killed him. Then her and her brother started to find an exit and saw Gunther near the machinery after he killed the girl Amy was friends with. Amy was able to turn on a switch to start the gears and it caught Gunther and he was killed by getting sucked in the gears. That is how the book ends.
The book starts off with a woman taking shots of vodka to get courage. We find out she's trying to get up courage to kill her baby. The baby is deformed and the mom thinks it's evil. When Ellen (the mom_) tries to kill the baby it fights back fiercely, unlike a baby ever should or could be able to do. She kills the baby, and her abusive husband, Conrad comes home to find the baby dead. He hits her but doesn't kill her, makes her move out right that second, and tells her that he is going to wait how ever long it takes and one day find her children she has in the future and kill them.
The next part of the book is many years later. Ellen has had two children, a teenage girl and a 10-year-old son. Ellen is a god-fearing alcoholic that is a very strict mom. Ellen's daughter, Amy, realizes she is pregnant and when she tells her boyfriend at the end of Prom night, he refuses to give her money for an abortion, breaks up with her, and says he will say she slept with someone else.
Amy can't find a way to raise the money to get an abortion so she finally decides she will have to tell her mom, and is genuinely scared that her mom will kill her. She tells her mom and her mom says she has to get an abortion and can't tell anyone about it ever. She mentions that the baby could come out as a monster and deformed. Meanwhile, Ellen gets belligerently drunk most nights and sneaks into her son's room when she thinks he is asleep. He isn't asleep and hears her talking about how she hopes he won't turn into a monster because she wouldn't want to kill him like she had to kill Victor. This really scares him. He decides that when the carnival comes to town he will try to run away to be with the carnies.
Meanwhile, we see that Conrad is a carny and he has been spending years trying to hunt down Ellen to find her new life and kill her children. Any time he sees a child that looks similar or around the age of what he thought Ellen's kids would have been. He makes another carny give free coupons to the psychic so the psychic could get more info about them.
Ellen's son goes to the carnival and while there, Conrad asks him questions and he feels a need to lie about his mom's name and life. Conrad gives him two coupons to come back to the fair anyway. He plans to use one to run away with the carnival on the last night they are open. He decides he will use the other one to go back again another time before the end of the carnival.
Amy gets her abortion and then starts hanging out a lot with her one very promiscuous friend and two boys that they double date a lot. They go to the carnival one night and go into the psychic booth. The psychic looks into the sphere and freaks out and tells the group they need to get out right away and they are in danger if they don't. She admits that she can't actually see the future and she pretends, but for the first time ever she really saw something bad and a lot of blood and danger and they had to leave. The group ignores her.
Conrad goes to talk to the psychic to see if she got any info on the girl. She said she didn't but Conrad said she is lying and kills her before she can try to stop him from taking Ellen's kids. Also, the psychic and Ellen had a child together named Gunther, and he was deformed and beast like. He had been raping, killing, and dismembering people before going to the next stop for the carnival. Conrad wanted to steal Ellen's kid and have Gunther kill them and torture them. Conrad thinks that he was meant to worship the devil and he gave birth to Gunther who is the new devil.
Conrad gives the group a coupon to go into the funhouse where he planned to steal Amy. Ellen's son was also at the carnival and when he was on the Ferris wheel he saw Amy going into the fun house so he went to go wait for her to get off. Conrad saw the boy and convinced him to help him fix the funhouse because he said it was stuck and that's why his sister was taking so long to come out.
Conrad stopped the funhouse and had gunther kill the three friends of Amy's one by one. Amy finally gets to a basement and sees Conrad with her brother. She has a crappy knife that she found in the darkness when trying to get out the funhouse. She leans down to give her brother a hug when she found him and when Conrad wasn't expecting it she sliced his throat and killed him. Then her and her brother started to find an exit and saw Gunther near the machinery after he killed the girl Amy was friends with. Amy was able to turn on a switch to start the gears and it caught Gunther and he was killed by getting sucked in the gears. That is how the book ends.
Цялото ревю тук > https://nikoljonnotsnow.wordpress.com/2017/07/04/панаирът-дийн-кунц/
Това е всъщност една история за сблъсъка между доброто и злото – толкова буквално, че са намесени Господ и Сатаната като двете сили, които движат героите и им помагат и насочват действията им. Затова и разграничението между добро и зло е пределно ясно – няма никакво съмнение къде на фронтовата линия стоят героите, защото не просто всичко е буквално, а е и ужасно пресилено.
Ако трябва да бъда честна, не останах очарована от тази книга. През цялото време си мислех, че вероятно този сюжет и изпълнението му би бил хубав хорър филм от 1980-те години, но като за книга… нещо липснаше просто, а образите бяха сковани, с предопределена цел (като човек, гледал достатъчно хоръри, не ми беше особено трудно да предвидя какво ще се случи накрая… а дори и да не си гледал много хоръри, пак няма да е трудно). Общо взето всичко беше като от калъп направено.
Както стана ясно, това е история за борбата между доброто и злото и пътят, който всеки човек воже да избере да поеме и да реши в коя посока иска да тръгне. Има ги и свръхестествените елементи, на които всъщност се основава историята, тъй като без тях тя не би могла да бъде това, което е.
Наистина, романът не е кой знае какво. С всичките фанатично-религиозни елемети дори ми досади, беше клиширан и съдбата на героите беше ясна ако не от самото начало, то поне от средата нататък. Но пък харесвам стила на Кунц, харесва ми начина, по който пише – толкова е плавно и леко, приятно и увлекателно, че може да забравиш, че историята не е нищо особено.
Това е всъщност една история за сблъсъка между доброто и злото – толкова буквално, че са намесени Господ и Сатаната като двете сили, които движат героите и им помагат и насочват действията им. Затова и разграничението между добро и зло е пределно ясно – няма никакво съмнение къде на фронтовата линия стоят героите, защото не просто всичко е буквално, а е и ужасно пресилено.
Ако трябва да бъда честна, не останах очарована от тази книга. През цялото време си мислех, че вероятно този сюжет и изпълнението му би бил хубав хорър филм от 1980-те години, но като за книга… нещо липснаше просто, а образите бяха сковани, с предопределена цел (като човек, гледал достатъчно хоръри, не ми беше особено трудно да предвидя какво ще се случи накрая… а дори и да не си гледал много хоръри, пак няма да е трудно). Общо взето всичко беше като от калъп направено.
Както стана ясно, това е история за борбата между доброто и злото и пътят, който всеки човек воже да избере да поеме и да реши в коя посока иска да тръгне. Има ги и свръхестествените елементи, на които всъщност се основава историята, тъй като без тях тя не би могла да бъде това, което е.
Наистина, романът не е кой знае какво. С всичките фанатично-религиозни елемети дори ми досади, беше клиширан и съдбата на героите беше ясна ако не от самото начало, то поне от средата нататък. Но пък харесвам стила на Кунц, харесва ми начина, по който пише – толкова е плавно и леко, приятно и увлекателно, че може да забравиш, че историята не е нищо особено.
Thoughts: https://wp.me/p1n6kW-2iV (available March 17, 2019)
Look, I think there should be way more slasher movie novelizations with wildly overreaching backstories, so that's the main reason to read this, and it succeeds at that. The problem ultimately is that the plot of the movie doesn't provide space to pay off all of these wild threads of revenge, Satanism and cycles of child abuse.
I am curious how much of the material that actually was in the movie that's lost here was later additions that weren't in the screenplay Koontz was provided and how much he just wrote himself into a corner with his additions that would require too much explanation to fit, so he just dropped the movie version of events.
It certainly provided me with what I wanted from it.
I am curious how much of the material that actually was in the movie that's lost here was later additions that weren't in the screenplay Koontz was provided and how much he just wrote himself into a corner with his additions that would require too much explanation to fit, so he just dropped the movie version of events.
It certainly provided me with what I wanted from it.
I wish I enjoyed this book more then I did. I absolutely love carnival settings and the revenge plot was fun and aggressive. However I just found the writing to be very repetitive and somewhat boring. There were exciting parts, but overall a bland turn out for such a fun idea.
I was also very disappointed with how quickly I felt it ended. There was a lot of build up for such a quick end and unsatisfying end.
I was also very disappointed with how quickly I felt it ended. There was a lot of build up for such a quick end and unsatisfying end.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read this when I was 11. It has lived with me ever since. I go back regularly to re-read.
It just got boring and predictable to me
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Gore
I was left wanting with this one. It was not my least favorite by Koontz (that 'honor' goes to "Your Heart Belongs to Me") but it was not a favorite or one I would even return to. This book was pretty anti-climatic and I dislike that in books, especially when there is such a huge build up like there was here and everything is resolved in two pages. Plus there were a lot of loose threads left hanging with no resolution and that was disappointing as well.
I get that this was based on a screenplay (since it was a case where that came first) but I felt like there were other unnecessary aspects that could have been trimmed off or even a bit of an epilogue to let people know how the ends tied up. True the characters were clichéd but this was 80's horror so with the exception of Liz (who annoyed me because she reminded me of a vulgar Peppermint Patty) it was almost forgivable.
Pretty much this was one that I will likely forget reading. I do like Koontz but more of his later works it appears like the ones that are just thrillers (not horror) or the Odd Thomas books. If you're looking for something that reminds you of the slasher pics of the 80's pick this up. If not you may want to pass it on by.
I get that this was based on a screenplay (since it was a case where that came first) but I felt like there were other unnecessary aspects that could have been trimmed off or even a bit of an epilogue to let people know how the ends tied up. True the characters were clichéd but this was 80's horror so with the exception of Liz (who annoyed me because she reminded me of a vulgar Peppermint Patty) it was almost forgivable.
Pretty much this was one that I will likely forget reading. I do like Koontz but more of his later works it appears like the ones that are just thrillers (not horror) or the Odd Thomas books. If you're looking for something that reminds you of the slasher pics of the 80's pick this up. If not you may want to pass it on by.
My first Dean Koontz book that I finished! Yay! Thanks for the rec baby!
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes