Tales From Halloween Land: Two brand new short stories and a novelette
Enter Halloween Land, a carnival where nightmares come to life. Three never-before-released stories. Sinister, surreal, and darkly twisted, these tales will test courage, morality, and what it truly means to survive… if you dare step inside.
Three teens enter the eerie carnival Halloween Land and become trapped in a sinister tent. There, a living clown jack-in-the-box named Koko McKillington III forces them into a deadly game: one will leave, one will stay, and one will die. Facing horrifying choices and grotesque horrors behind mysterious doors, the boys quickly realize survival comes at a horrifying cost, testing their courage—and their humanity.
Melissa, a teenage girl, who was killed and resurrected by the sinister, otherworldly carnival Halloween Land—transformed into a powerful yet unstable clown. Bound to the carnival and gifted with superhuman abilities, she cannot escape, but her mind remains her own, mostly. As she navigates the ever-shifting, grotesque, and surreal landscape of Halloween Land, Melissa struggles to retain fragments of her humanity while embracing her newfound chaos. Trapped in a place she hates, she becomes a rogue force, turning her supernatural skills and unpredictable mind against the carnival itself. (Takes place directly after the events of The Clown novella.)
Frank and Anna’s quiet, happy life with their son Billy is shattered when he vanishes at a traveling carnival—along with his friends and their parents—leaving no trace and no answers. Grief drives them apart, their lives descending into despair, until a mysterious, otherworldly clown suddenly appears in their home. Beautiful, unnerving, and disturbingly aware of her own fragmented identity, she hints at the dark, supernatural forces behind Billy’s disappearance—and that their nightmare has only just begun.
This was my first visit to Halloween Land. Not having read the previous books, I still feel like I have a decent grasp of the goings on in this creepy carnival from these stand-alone tales.
The carnival itself is a mysterious living entity. It pops up wherever it pleases and disappears when it gets what it came for, luring in unsuspecting patrons so it can feed on their souls. Those who are not chosen will be allowed to leave, but have very little memory of having attended, or of the strange looking carnies who work the rides and concessions.
In the first story, three teenagers who have never visited any carnival before are mesmerized by the sights and sounds at Halloween Land. There are so many games and rides, not to mention the smell of all that delicious food. If only they had not noticed a beautiful woman at a partially obscured tent, they might have had a night to remember fondly instead of a night to regret.
In the next story, we meet Melissa, or what used to be Melissa before the carnival murdered her friends and tried to bend her to its will. She is something different now, trapped by the carnival in a life she can't escape, but never under its full control.
In the final story, a happy family is destroyed when the parents let their only son go to the carnival with friends. Their dread turns to panic and then despair the longer they are left waiting for him to come home. This was my favorite of the three tales. I found it to be more suspenseful and emotionally charged than the first two, and I enjoyed the way it tied together with a previous character.
4 out of 5 stars
My thanks to the author for the e-ARC
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