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A review by thomaswjoyce
Dream Woods by Patrick Lacey
5.0
The first thing you notice with this book will be that cover by Kelly Martin and Scott Carpenter. We can see the typical fairground attractions in the background, and that is great. That is what we are led to believe the theme park Dream Woods is all about. But then there is Sebastian, the furry overgrown mascot for the park, standing in the foreground and looking less huggable than a cactus crawling with scorpions. And take note of the portcullis in the archway with the stone gargoyle to the side. These elements foreshadow the horrors to come. This is not Sleeping Beauty’s castle from Disneyland. Dream Woods is no ordinary theme park…
But the story begins with an ordinary man, Vince Carter. Now a family man, Vince was once the frontman for a punk-rock band, complete with mohawk and tattoos all over his body. Nowadays, the mohawk is gone and he hides the tattoos beneath long-sleeved shirts in accordance with his accountancy firm’s personal appearance policy. While driving to work one morning, Vince notices a billboard advertising that Dream Woods, the scene of one of the best holidays of his life as a child, has reopened. He goes into a state of reminiscence and becomes convinced that this is just the kind of break his own fractured family needs to heal themselves and come together.
The point-of-view jumps from one member of the family to the other as the story progresses, giving us a glimpse into the minds of the mother, Audra, and ten-year-old twins, Tim (who suffers from diabetes) and Andrew (who suffers from being overlooked in favour of his sickly sibling). Lacey presents a picture of familial disharmony where the parents are withdrawn from one another, only conversing when they need to and in a very business-like way, and where the brothers argue with each other non-stop, the source of the tension usually Andrew’s bullying of Tim. This dysfunction will come to a head when they embark on their family vacation to Dream Woods.
There are all sorts of rumours regarding the reason for the park’s closure in the late eighties, from serial killers to cults to aliens, but Vince ignores all of these and rubbishes any concerns his family may have about what lies beyond the park’s gates. He is convinced it will be the magic tonic to cure all their worries. But Lacey manages to weave in discouraging signs from the moment they set off on their commute to the park. First they meet a local at a gas station who tries, and fails, to persuade Vince that the park is still closed. Then even Vince begins to have his doubts as they drive through the countryside and get closer to where the park should be, but there is no immediate sign, just trees and mountains and the country road.
The author manages to do this all through the book, sprinkling the story with unnerving details that make the Carter family, and the reader, doubt what is happening. Are all of these events really happening to them? Is some of it merely imagined? Indeed, things do not get any clearer after they arrive at the park, from the creepy employees to the screams of the patrons, seemingly joyous to begin with but easily turning to screams of horror in the blink of an eye. This method of storytelling keeps the reader on edge and unsure of what is to come next.
It doesn’t take long for the underlying tensions afflicting the Carter’s to come to the fore and it is at this moment that the antagonist, the sinister and otherworldly Director of the park, chooses to rip the veil aside and reveal the true nature of the park and its employees to the patrons. At this point, we are still less than halfway through the book. But at no point before did the story feel rushed and at no point after did it feel as though the story were dragging. Lacey handled the pacing well, giving us enough background in the first half of the book to feel invested in the Carter family and realise that something is very wrong with the theme park and also giving enough space in the last half to fully resolve all of the threads of the story in a satisfactory manner. We never reached the point where we wanted to put the book down. We were gripped from start to finish.
Overall, Lacey shows a great deal of potential with this book. It is an accomplished and entertaining read full of drama and great storytelling, not to mention he handles the gory scenes very well. It is a thrilling, tilt-a-whirl story where the veil of reality is stretched thin and the horror is gleefully, and skilfully, unleashed upon the reader. If you are a fan of creepy and unnerving tales with a dash of well-written family dysfunction, you should give Patrick Lacey’s latest story a shot.
But the story begins with an ordinary man, Vince Carter. Now a family man, Vince was once the frontman for a punk-rock band, complete with mohawk and tattoos all over his body. Nowadays, the mohawk is gone and he hides the tattoos beneath long-sleeved shirts in accordance with his accountancy firm’s personal appearance policy. While driving to work one morning, Vince notices a billboard advertising that Dream Woods, the scene of one of the best holidays of his life as a child, has reopened. He goes into a state of reminiscence and becomes convinced that this is just the kind of break his own fractured family needs to heal themselves and come together.
The point-of-view jumps from one member of the family to the other as the story progresses, giving us a glimpse into the minds of the mother, Audra, and ten-year-old twins, Tim (who suffers from diabetes) and Andrew (who suffers from being overlooked in favour of his sickly sibling). Lacey presents a picture of familial disharmony where the parents are withdrawn from one another, only conversing when they need to and in a very business-like way, and where the brothers argue with each other non-stop, the source of the tension usually Andrew’s bullying of Tim. This dysfunction will come to a head when they embark on their family vacation to Dream Woods.
There are all sorts of rumours regarding the reason for the park’s closure in the late eighties, from serial killers to cults to aliens, but Vince ignores all of these and rubbishes any concerns his family may have about what lies beyond the park’s gates. He is convinced it will be the magic tonic to cure all their worries. But Lacey manages to weave in discouraging signs from the moment they set off on their commute to the park. First they meet a local at a gas station who tries, and fails, to persuade Vince that the park is still closed. Then even Vince begins to have his doubts as they drive through the countryside and get closer to where the park should be, but there is no immediate sign, just trees and mountains and the country road.
The author manages to do this all through the book, sprinkling the story with unnerving details that make the Carter family, and the reader, doubt what is happening. Are all of these events really happening to them? Is some of it merely imagined? Indeed, things do not get any clearer after they arrive at the park, from the creepy employees to the screams of the patrons, seemingly joyous to begin with but easily turning to screams of horror in the blink of an eye. This method of storytelling keeps the reader on edge and unsure of what is to come next.
It doesn’t take long for the underlying tensions afflicting the Carter’s to come to the fore and it is at this moment that the antagonist, the sinister and otherworldly Director of the park, chooses to rip the veil aside and reveal the true nature of the park and its employees to the patrons. At this point, we are still less than halfway through the book. But at no point before did the story feel rushed and at no point after did it feel as though the story were dragging. Lacey handled the pacing well, giving us enough background in the first half of the book to feel invested in the Carter family and realise that something is very wrong with the theme park and also giving enough space in the last half to fully resolve all of the threads of the story in a satisfactory manner. We never reached the point where we wanted to put the book down. We were gripped from start to finish.
Overall, Lacey shows a great deal of potential with this book. It is an accomplished and entertaining read full of drama and great storytelling, not to mention he handles the gory scenes very well. It is a thrilling, tilt-a-whirl story where the veil of reality is stretched thin and the horror is gleefully, and skilfully, unleashed upon the reader. If you are a fan of creepy and unnerving tales with a dash of well-written family dysfunction, you should give Patrick Lacey’s latest story a shot.