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biteintobooks's review
4.0
Thanks to the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I definitely need a short story book by Kevin J. Kennedy, every once in a while. Especially the fact that these are horror stories, make them extra fun for me to read. I do hope this author will keep making books like this and I also hope that he will keep asking me to read them! Yay!
A longer review can be found at Bite Into Books
If you're a horror fan, I'd definitely recommend you read one of the books by Kevin J. Kennedy. The fact that it's all short stories, makes sure that every books has a story to your liking. I do expect a certain level of these books because this author spoiled me with such good stories! I'm so glad that the books live up to my expectations every time.
I definitely need a short story book by Kevin J. Kennedy, every once in a while. Especially the fact that these are horror stories, make them extra fun for me to read. I do hope this author will keep making books like this and I also hope that he will keep asking me to read them! Yay!
A longer review can be found at Bite Into Books
If you're a horror fan, I'd definitely recommend you read one of the books by Kevin J. Kennedy. The fact that it's all short stories, makes sure that every books has a story to your liking. I do expect a certain level of these books because this author spoiled me with such good stories! I'm so glad that the books live up to my expectations every time.
ericarobyn's review
5.0
Carnival of Horror is another amazing short story collection put together by Kevin J Kennedy. This collection has a little something for all horror lovers!
Mr Kennedy had sent this over to me ages ago, but I had quite the backlog of honest review requests that sat between where I was in the queue and where this book’s entry sat. So needless to say, I was so pumped when this one was finally up next!
Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way.
This was such a great collection! I both love and am terrified by carnivals! Clowns aren’t my favorite, never have been. Though I wouldn’t say I was afraid of them, exactly… it’s more like I just want to avoid them. But the clowns in this collection are the terrifying type for sure!
This collection also taught me the term “candy floss.” I’d only ever heard the term “cotton candy,” so I found that so interesting!
I also loved that many of these tales featured characters walking to the carnival! I grew up on an island off the coast of Maine, so to get to a carnival for us was a whole production and usually had at least a half an hour drive. I can only imagine how fun it would have been to be able to walk to one!
Of course, with any type of collection, it’s normal for me to love some and dislike some. In this specific collection, there was only one story that I didn’t care for simply based on the content matter which strayed into the type of horror I dislike.
Feel free to read on to see my quick thoughts after I read each story.
Heads up: there are very slight spoilers.
Wobbly Bob by David J. Fielding – 4/5
Woah! The mermaid caught me totally off guard but how neat! Then it just got better!
Mister Weasels and the Cosmic Carnival by H.R. Boldwood- 3/5
Woah! Space clowns? Eek!
Abandonland by Jason M. Light- 5/5
What?! Ah! This one was perfect! I’d love to read a longer tale with this plot! A great short story but as a novella it could also pack a punch!
The Frog Prince by Joe X. Young- 5/5
Yes!! Brutal revenge! I would happily read more about this tale! I need to know more about Trudy!!
Zoltara by Christina Bergling- 5/5
I loved this modern carnival! What a clever idea! And phew, what a dark tale!
In a Hand or Face by Gary A. Braunbeck- 4/5
Heartbreaking and terrifying!
Blood Show at the Carnival by Guy N. Smith- 4/5
Phew!! Quite violent and creepy!
For One Night Only by Lex H Jones- 5/5
Yes! I love a good ominous tale like this! So unsettling!
The Last Freakshow on Earth by a David Owain Hughes- 4/5
What a clever idea! I loved the 80s pop culture references! And what an ending!
Lifeblood by Mark Fleming
Unfortunately not one for me.
House of Illusion by Andrew Lennon- 5/5
Terrifying! Oh my gosh. I so wanted this one to have a happy ending.
Sweetheart by Selene MacLeod- 4/5
Woah! Intensely dark.
Vampiro by Kevin J. Kennedy- 5/5
Yes! A solid vampire tale! I loved the main character in this tale. And what an interesting plan.
What a Price to Pay for a Fucking Teddy Bear by J.C. Michael- 5/5
What a title for this one! I loved the comments here and there that built the suspense in this tale. And phew, what a tale!
The Voodoo Man by Steven Stacy- 5/5
Woah! Dark but this one packs a punch with a strong lesson.
Frimby’s Big Day by John Dover- 5/5
So intense and gory!! Wonderfully done. And that ending!!
The Pinch by Ike Hamill- 5/5
Ooh! Loved this one!
The Scare Machine by Megan Franzen- 5/5
Phew! What a story to end the collection! Terrifying!
My Final Thoughts:
Phew! What a collection! This really had a short for all types of horror lovers; from the eerie or sad tales to the downright brutal and gory. I cannot recommend it highly enough!
Mr Kennedy had sent this over to me ages ago, but I had quite the backlog of honest review requests that sat between where I was in the queue and where this book’s entry sat. So needless to say, I was so pumped when this one was finally up next!
Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way.
This was such a great collection! I both love and am terrified by carnivals! Clowns aren’t my favorite, never have been. Though I wouldn’t say I was afraid of them, exactly… it’s more like I just want to avoid them. But the clowns in this collection are the terrifying type for sure!
This collection also taught me the term “candy floss.” I’d only ever heard the term “cotton candy,” so I found that so interesting!
I also loved that many of these tales featured characters walking to the carnival! I grew up on an island off the coast of Maine, so to get to a carnival for us was a whole production and usually had at least a half an hour drive. I can only imagine how fun it would have been to be able to walk to one!
Of course, with any type of collection, it’s normal for me to love some and dislike some. In this specific collection, there was only one story that I didn’t care for simply based on the content matter which strayed into the type of horror I dislike.
Feel free to read on to see my quick thoughts after I read each story.
Heads up: there are very slight spoilers.
Wobbly Bob by David J. Fielding – 4/5
Woah! The mermaid caught me totally off guard but how neat! Then it just got better!
Mister Weasels and the Cosmic Carnival by H.R. Boldwood- 3/5
Woah! Space clowns? Eek!
Abandonland by Jason M. Light- 5/5
What?! Ah! This one was perfect! I’d love to read a longer tale with this plot! A great short story but as a novella it could also pack a punch!
The Frog Prince by Joe X. Young- 5/5
Yes!! Brutal revenge! I would happily read more about this tale! I need to know more about Trudy!!
Zoltara by Christina Bergling- 5/5
I loved this modern carnival! What a clever idea! And phew, what a dark tale!
In a Hand or Face by Gary A. Braunbeck- 4/5
Heartbreaking and terrifying!
Blood Show at the Carnival by Guy N. Smith- 4/5
Phew!! Quite violent and creepy!
For One Night Only by Lex H Jones- 5/5
Yes! I love a good ominous tale like this! So unsettling!
The Last Freakshow on Earth by a David Owain Hughes- 4/5
What a clever idea! I loved the 80s pop culture references! And what an ending!
Lifeblood by Mark Fleming
Unfortunately not one for me.
House of Illusion by Andrew Lennon- 5/5
Terrifying! Oh my gosh. I so wanted this one to have a happy ending.
Sweetheart by Selene MacLeod- 4/5
Woah! Intensely dark.
Vampiro by Kevin J. Kennedy- 5/5
Yes! A solid vampire tale! I loved the main character in this tale. And what an interesting plan.
What a Price to Pay for a Fucking Teddy Bear by J.C. Michael- 5/5
What a title for this one! I loved the comments here and there that built the suspense in this tale. And phew, what a tale!
The Voodoo Man by Steven Stacy- 5/5
Woah! Dark but this one packs a punch with a strong lesson.
Frimby’s Big Day by John Dover- 5/5
So intense and gory!! Wonderfully done. And that ending!!
The Pinch by Ike Hamill- 5/5
Ooh! Loved this one!
The Scare Machine by Megan Franzen- 5/5
Phew! What a story to end the collection! Terrifying!
My Final Thoughts:
Phew! What a collection! This really had a short for all types of horror lovers; from the eerie or sad tales to the downright brutal and gory. I cannot recommend it highly enough!
errantdreams's review
4.0
This book has the typical anthology issue of having some stories that are better than others; when you put together a bunch of stories by different authors, they aren’t likely to all appeal to the same readers.
Some of the stories are basically creepy and fun. David J. Fielding’s “Wobbly Bob”, set in 1886, starts things off nicely and serves as a sort of prelude. I enjoyed Joe X. Young’s “The Frog Prince,” which has some fascinating character interplay and a bizarre ending. Gary A. Braunbeck’s “In a Hand or Face” was powerful and made me tear up just a little bit. Andrew Lennon’s “House of Illusion” is wonderfully creepy (the ending is where most of the stories that disappointed me tended to fall down, so I appreciated the delightful ending on this one). Selene MacLeod’s “Sweetheart” isn’t my usual kind of tale, but it’s mournful, dark, and sad. John Dover’s “Frimby’s Big Day” is an odd tale of a horror that comes TO the carnival rather than from it, and while it’s a bit over-the-top in its gore, well, this is a book of carnival horror stories so you can expect some of that! Megan Franzen’s “The Scare Machine” gives us a nice bit of ancient Greek terror bound up in a little carnie machine, and we see what happens as several teens face their worst fears.
H.R. Boldwood’s “Mister Weasels and the Cosmic Carnival” didn’t entirely appeal to me. It’s an utterly weird tale that starts off well and then takes a left turn into a bizarre alien clown death match. Jason M. Light’s “Abandonland” (set in 1986) feels pretty random, and characters get into weird trains of thought out of nowhere. David Owain Hughes’s “The Last Freakshow on Earth” (set in 2081’s Chinatown but really reliving the 1980s) was… confusing and weird. The pacing of Kevin J. Kennedy’s “Vampiro” was a bit hurried in places and thus lacked atmosphere. Steven Stacy’s “The Voodoo Man” had some original ideas, but the style was oddly glib, and the characters felt… flimsy, fake.
There are a few nicely original tales in here that hooked me. Christina Bergling’s “Zoltara” was my favorite tale from this book. Where most of the stories seem to dwell in the land of my childhood, this one jumps headfirst into the 21st century with a slick VR- and robot-based carnival with a chilling fortune-telling app. Ike Hamill’s “The Pinch” ends abruptly, but has a fantastic sense of place and character.
Overall I really enjoyed this collection of horror stories.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2018/10/review-carnival-of-horror-kevin-j-kennedy/
Some of the stories are basically creepy and fun. David J. Fielding’s “Wobbly Bob”, set in 1886, starts things off nicely and serves as a sort of prelude. I enjoyed Joe X. Young’s “The Frog Prince,” which has some fascinating character interplay and a bizarre ending. Gary A. Braunbeck’s “In a Hand or Face” was powerful and made me tear up just a little bit. Andrew Lennon’s “House of Illusion” is wonderfully creepy (the ending is where most of the stories that disappointed me tended to fall down, so I appreciated the delightful ending on this one). Selene MacLeod’s “Sweetheart” isn’t my usual kind of tale, but it’s mournful, dark, and sad. John Dover’s “Frimby’s Big Day” is an odd tale of a horror that comes TO the carnival rather than from it, and while it’s a bit over-the-top in its gore, well, this is a book of carnival horror stories so you can expect some of that! Megan Franzen’s “The Scare Machine” gives us a nice bit of ancient Greek terror bound up in a little carnie machine, and we see what happens as several teens face their worst fears.
H.R. Boldwood’s “Mister Weasels and the Cosmic Carnival” didn’t entirely appeal to me. It’s an utterly weird tale that starts off well and then takes a left turn into a bizarre alien clown death match. Jason M. Light’s “Abandonland” (set in 1986) feels pretty random, and characters get into weird trains of thought out of nowhere. David Owain Hughes’s “The Last Freakshow on Earth” (set in 2081’s Chinatown but really reliving the 1980s) was… confusing and weird. The pacing of Kevin J. Kennedy’s “Vampiro” was a bit hurried in places and thus lacked atmosphere. Steven Stacy’s “The Voodoo Man” had some original ideas, but the style was oddly glib, and the characters felt… flimsy, fake.
There are a few nicely original tales in here that hooked me. Christina Bergling’s “Zoltara” was my favorite tale from this book. Where most of the stories seem to dwell in the land of my childhood, this one jumps headfirst into the 21st century with a slick VR- and robot-based carnival with a chilling fortune-telling app. Ike Hamill’s “The Pinch” ends abruptly, but has a fantastic sense of place and character.
Overall I really enjoyed this collection of horror stories.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2018/10/review-carnival-of-horror-kevin-j-kennedy/
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